Justice and Rebellion
by hahy4040
Summary: When Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka move to Tokyo for a year to investigate mental shutdown cases, they soon realize that they may have bitten off more than they can chew. When they become involved with whole new realities and powers beyond their imagination, they are confronted with the possibility that Magecraft may only be one of many parts of the supernatural world.
1. Prologue 1

**Prologue**

Shirou didn't want to go to Tokyo.

All in all, it was a nice city, and after doing a bit of research, he was sure that there would be plenty of things he could do to spend his time there. It was the capital of Japan after all, so it was bound to be more expansive and modern compared to Fuyuki.

But either way, he expected that he wouldn't have too much time for that. And besides, Tokyo seemed like a pretty nice place, but Fuyuki was home. He had Sakura, Fujimura-sensei, hell, even Shinji had become somewhat kind after the holy grail war. He still couldn't call the blue haired pimp a friend, but it was still a start. Shirou could see that the boy was at least making somewhat of an effort, and appreciated it.

The holy grail war, hopefully, was now a thing of the past. After the events that had transpired, Shinji, Rin, and Shirou, the last surviving masters, had gotten together and agreed that everything had to be water under the bridge. Well, it was more of Rin negotiating with Shinji, but either way, the meeting had turned out effective. Shirou was glad that he could finally at least _somewhat_ put the gruesome events behind him and move forwards. The image of Illya with her heart ripped out was still fresh inside his mind, but he made his best effort to move forward.

For a while, literally everything was normal. _Too_ normal, in fact. Taiga Fujimura went back to spending the day in Shirou's house, Sakura naturally helped out, and Issei kept blasting Shirou for hanging out with Rin, calling the magus girl a "manipulating witch" who would turn him into a frog.

Oh boy, Shirou wondered what his reaction would be if Issei found out that Shirou was her boyfriend. No doubt, he would get at least a day of furious lecturing about how he was trudging in extremely dangerous grounds.

And the best part was, he would have a point.

To be a magus was to walk with death. That was something Emiya Kiritsugu had practically drilled into his head. And being involved with Rin meant that he would most likely be caught up in her strange little experiments with her magecraft. He wasn't one to dis-encourage the girl, but sometimes, they could get slightly... Out of hand.

This was the new normal for Emiya Shirou. At least, until a day ago when Rin suddenly told Shirou that they were going to Tokyo.

* * *

**1 Day Ago**

* * *

"E- Eh? Tokyo?"

"Yes, Emiya-kun, Tokyo."

"W- Why are we suddenly going to Tokyo?" He paused. "Wait, no, that isn't the question. Why are you taking _me_ to Tokyo?" He asked in desperation.

"Because, Emiya-kun, 2 reasons. First off, I will be gone for a year, so I will need company. Second, I am investigating the mental shutdown cases there, so there may be possibly dangerous magecraft at work here. If that comes to be, I will need backup. These cases have already killed dozens of people on a train, and if it's magecraft at work, we can't allow this to continue. Don't you agree, Emiya-kun?" She paused. "And besides, I only asked you to come with me. You can decline, you know. Just know that you'll be spending an entire year without me." She stated bluntly before entering her room and closing the door behind her, most likely to change.

Shirou blinked in confusion. He could refuse? He stood on his spot unmoving for a good while, completely caught off guard by the conversation that had just transpired.

"So, Emiya-kun? Have you made your decision yet?" Rin's voice echoed out of the room.

'_If I go, I'm going to have to leave Fuyuki for an entire year, and I won't be able to see any of the people I care about here... But the mental shutdown cases already killed dozens of people, and there might be a powerful magus at work...'_

"I'll go with you." He sighed. "I'll go back home and start packing."

In her room, Rin grinned. She felt bad for exploiting Shirou's ally of justice ideals, but she really wanted him to go along with her.

But of course, she would never tell him that.

That would be way too embarrassing.

* * *

**Present**

* * *

Shirou opened the door to his house to find 2 very familiar faces.

"SHIROU! You missed dinner! Sakura cooked some kinda western meal and it was so good!" Taiga Fujimura said, energetic as always.

"Sorry, Fuji-nee, I was... busy." Shirou responded with a light smile, pondering on how he could tell 2 of the people who were practically his roommates that he was going to be gone for a year. He couldn't outright say that it had to do with investigating possibly life threatening magecraft, since neither of the people in the room were actual mages, but on the other hand, he wasn't exactly the best at making excuses. He wasn't an amazing liar in general either. There was a huge chance that Fujimura sensei would easily find out that he was up to something, and that he wasn't telling her the full truth.

He sighed. How the hell was he supposed to do this?

'_C'mon Shirou, you survived a freaking holy grail war, you can do this easily!'_ He reassured himself to no avail.

Because if there was anything he was more afraid of than Gilgamesh, it was a pissed off Taiga Fujimura.

"Fuji-nee?" He softly called out, carefully phrasing his words in his head. "I... need to tell you something."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"I... am going to Tokyo for a year."

...

...

...

"WHAT!"

Shirou cringed in despair. This was already going south _really quickly. _"I am going to Tokyo... To take care of some business I have there." Shirou grimaced. It was a lame, cliche excuse, but he wasn't exactly the most creative person in the world when it came to things like these.

Fujimura sensei smirked and put a hand to her hips. "Hmm? And what _business_ do you have in Tokyo, _Shirou-kun_?" Shirou grimaced. He really needed to think these things over before he put them into practice.

"U- Um... I... Have some personal business there!" Shirou stuttered out.

"Uh, no. Shirou, I'm your guardian, Shirou. And I know you well enough to know..." She paused with a coy smile. "That you are lying." Taiga grinned. "You're too much of a goody two shoes to lie, Shirou. So tell me. Why are you going to Tokyo, of all places?" She asked this time with genuine sincerity in her voice.

Shirou sighed.

"It has to do with... Kiritsugu." It wasn't a lie. It didn't have to do with Kiritsugu himself, but it had to do with his line of work. So it was still a half truth.

Fujimura sensei widened her eyes at the mention of his adoptive father's name, and Sakura... flinched?

Taiga sighed.

"You really have no intention of telling me, don't you, Shirou?"

"Sorry, Fuji-nee. But... It's really important that I go."

Taiga bit her lip, pondering the possibilities. Despite her carefree attitude, she really did care for the boy. Ever since he was younger, Shirou Emiya had truly been something else. Always putting others before himself, and rarely, if not never being selfish during his entire life.

She sighed. The boy wouldn't simply go to Tokyo for an entire year without a reason, and she trusted him. After all, this was one of the first times he had actually asked her if he could do something that didn't involve helping other in some way or form. Although, she did suspect that helping others had _something_ to do with the request. He was, after all, striving to be an ally of justice.

Either way, it would be unfair of her to deny one of the first requests Shirou had given her.

"Alright. You can go."

Shirou's eyes widened. Just like that? He had expected Fujimura sensei to be a little more... resistant.

"BUT!" Taiga yelled. "You have to make sure you're safe, alright? And no skipping out on school, either." She said before mumbling, "Although I probably don't even need to tell you that..." She mumbled. "ANYWAYS! Just... Come back home next year, alright? I can't believe I'll live for an entire year without your cooking." The middle aged professor groaned, making Shirou chuckle lightly.

"Don't worry, Fuji-nee. I'll stay out of danger." That was probably a complete and utter lie.

He hated it. But no matter what, his magecraft had to stay a secret.

"Senpai? Can I talk to you about something?" Sakura interrupted quietly. Shirou turned to her, and saw that she had a dead serious look on her face. More serious than he had ever seen her before. Confused, he simply nodded, and found himself getting dragged by Sakura into his room.

Sakura closed the door tight.

"Senpai, you lied." Sakura's eyes were obscured by her bangs.

Shirou stuttered. "W-What? What would I lie about?"

"That you would stay out of danger."

Shirou stopped.

"I promise I'll be careful, Sakura." He carefully said.

"So you admit that you're going to be in danger?" Sakura asked sadly. "Senpai, there's only one reason you would go to Tokyo."

Shirou looked downwards. Did... Sakura know about his magecraft?

"Just... come back home next year, senpai. You're like a big brother to me." With that, Sakura simply gave Shirou an embrace and left the room.

And in the room stood Emiya Shirou, in all his glory, wondering what the hell had just happened.

...

"Yep, I told Fuji-nee and Sakura, and they said I could go. But Tohsaka, do you have _anything_ planned out for a year long trip?"

"Emiya-kun, you underestimate me. Don't worry, I've already prepared living quarters, bills, resources, school, and gems." Shirou grimaced at the last part. Rin's gem magic wasn't exactly _cheap_.

"Tohsaka..."

"Yes Emiya-kun?"

"How many gems did you buy?"

Tohsaka Rin only giggled in response, and somewhere far away, Emiya Shirou shuddered and nearly dropped his telephone.

He had the sudden feeling, that some questions were better left unanswered.

...

Shirou stepped on the train and promptly moved towards the back, where Rin was already seated. He had not packed too many belongings to Tokyo. Just a few pairs of clothes, toiletries, and a book about Tokyo that he planned on reading some time in the near future. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about his companion, who had stuffed a duffel bag with what seemed to be extremely dangerous magic items.

He shuddered at the sheer thought before promptly sitting down next to Rin.

"Tohsaka?"

"Yes Emiya-kun?"

"I forgot to ask, what's the name of the school that you signed us up for?"

"Shujin Academy. It's a school with an overall good reputation, and thankfully, working equipment." She joked, looking Shirou in the eye.

"Well, I suppose we'll see about that." Shirou replied with a chuckle.

"NEXT STOP: TOKYO." The announcer on the train said as the train started to accelerate, heading into a city far away.

'_Mental shutdown cases, huh.'_

Shirou idly wondered what the next year would bring.

**Notes:**

**Alright, prologue finished! **

**To put it short, this is my interpretation of what would happen if Shirou and Rin were to be in the Persona 5 plot. And don't worry, I won't involve them and make them buddy buddy with Akira and the phantom thieves right away, because I want to do something different than the generic "Shirou instantly joins the phantom thieves and does his hero of justice shit" plotline. He will eventually get involved with the P5 main cast, but it will be a long ways off. I'm still questioning whether I want Shirou to support the phantom thieves. And yes, Shirou won't take the place of the Protagonist. Akira will still definitely be involved in the story. **

**Now, 3 questions.**

**1\. Who do you want Akira to be paired with?**

**2\. Should Rin and Shirou have personas? **

**3\. If Shirou/Rin DO have personas, who do you want them to be? (I'm tempted to make Shirou's persona Gilgamesh or something because it would be freaking hilarious watching Gilgamesh aimbot shadows with his swords while muttering things like, "Stupid mongrel...") **


	2. Prologue 2

_**Prologue Part 2**_

Akira Kurusu was not having a good day.

That didn't necessarily automatically mean that it was bad, of course, but it certainly wasn't good either. And the worst part?

He hadn't a single clue why.

He had gone through today just like any other day. He had woke up in the morning, cooked breakfast, ate breakfast, walked to school, (hopefully) didn't sleep through any lessons, and now he was finished with Archery club, about to go home. And yet, he felt a twisted knot around his stomach telling him to go the other direction. To never go home, and to stay where he was forever, to avoid something. To avoid something _big_.

He decided that he would go home anyways. He was probably just feeling ill.

He walked the usual way back home. He exited school, and shuffled towards the shopping district, passing all the usual stores and shops. Just like every day.

And that was when he saw it.

A man... A bald one, arguing with a woman.

"Just get in the car!"

"Stop it!"

"How dare you cross me!"

"Stop it! LET ME GO!"

Now that he had a closer look, the man was extremely drunk.

"N- No! Please stop!"

He couldn't just ignore this.

"Tch... What a waste of time."

He went towards the 2 arguing figures.

"You think you're worth causing me trouble? Huh?"

"I-I'll call the police!"

"Heh. Call them if you want. The police are my bitches! They won't take you seriously!"

"No... Stop!"

"GET IN THE CAR! INCOMPETENT FOOLS LIKE YOU JUST NEED TO SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND FOLLOW WHERE I STEER THIS COUNTRY!"

Akira's hand tightened into a fist.

'_Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it. Just go home, Akira. This won't do you any good. This won't end well. Go home, ignore everything, forget it ever happened.'_

"What ya looking at kid! Go away, this is none of your business!" The drunk man slurred, still grabbing the woman.

Akira closed his eyes, biting his lip.

He could choose to just go home. He would go to school tomorrow just like any other day, forget that tonight happened, and ignore the situation all-together. It would probably be better for him to do so.

But a tiny rebellious spark in him said otherwise.

'_I guess I could ignore it... But...' _He mused. '_Do I wanna do that?_'

"GET IN THE CAR!"

'_No, I most definitely do not._'

Deciding to step in, Akira dashed towards the two figures and grabbed the man's arm. With a great inhale of breath, he used all of his strength to shove the drunk man off the woman.

It worked.

The drunkard staggered away from Akira and the woman... before falling towards the ground and hitting his head.

Shit.

"DAMN BRAT! I'LL SUE!"

"If you keep this up..." The woman interrupted. "Then I'll report about the money! Is that fine with you?"

"All I have to say is that you did it on your own, and it's over."

"But... I just did as I was told..."

"_Who do you think I am?"_

_"_No..."

"Hey, make this statement to the cops. 'This kid suddenly attacked me.' Got it?"

"WHAT?" Akira interrupted with a yell.

The bald man ignored him. "If you even _try_ to say anything else, you know what's gonna happen to you, yeah?"

"But..."

"Oi! You fell on your own! This is complete, utter bullshit!" Akira snarled.

"SHUT THE HELL UP! YOU'RE DONE FOR! I _HATE _STUPID KIDS LIKE YOU PLAYING HERO AND NOT KNOWING THEIR FUCKING PLACE. YOU... YOU'RE GONNA LEARN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CROSS ME." The bald man yelled back in retort.

That was when the police officers showed up.

"Excuse me, we received complaints about a noisy argument here, is there something wro-" He paused as soon as he saw the bald man. "Oh! It's you, sir."

Akira was starting to get a terrible feeling about this.

The bald man smirked victoriously. "C'mon then, tell them what happened! Explain it to the good officer!" He ordered the woman.

'_Please please please please please please'_

"...T- T- That y- young man s- suddenly a- attacked him... He... H- He... He p- shoved t- t- that g- gentleman... towards... the g- g- g- ground..." She stuttered out quietly.

'_No..._'

"A- A- And... T- This man... G- Got injured..."

'_NO!_'

"It's as she says..." The man smirked. "Also... Make sure that when you deal with this my name isn't mentioned at all. You understand what that means, correct?"

"Y- Yes, Sir!" The police officer quickly nodded.

'_No... this can't be happening. No fucking way this is happening.'_

"Hey! Cuff him!"

Akira raged, jabbing an angry finger at the man before he was cuffed by the police. Enraged, the boy struggled against the grasps of the two men, still in disbelief of what was happening.

"NO! THAT ISN'T WHAT HAPPENED! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME!" The police ignored him. "YOU! FUCKING BALD DICKLESS ASSHOLE. LYING SHITTY SCUMMY SON OF A BI- AAH!" He screamed as the police tackled him to the ground, grabbing his arms and legs and dragging him into the police car.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!" He screamed. The woman had a guilty expression on her face.

But guilt wasn't enough.

Akira stared in disbelief at his surroundings, and finally stopped resisting against the police's strong grasp. As he was dragged into the police car, his last thought was,

'_What am I going to do now?'_

...

_"We hereby expel you from our school."_

_"We can't believe we raised you this way. Get out of the house, you're no longer welcome in our family"_

_"Hey, I heard Kurusu raped a woman."_

_"Ugh, why is he still here? Get that thing out of this town?"_

_"Oh my! Hide behind me, honey. You don't want that delinquent boy to notice you. I heard he stabbed a man who came close to him!"_

_"...T- T- That y- young man s- suddenly a- attacked him... He... H- He... He p- shoved t- t- that g- gentleman... towards... the g- g- g- ground..."_

_"I** HATE **STUPID KIDS LIKE YOU PLAYING HERO AND NOT KNOWING THEIR FUCKING PLACE."_

_"DAMN BRAT! I'LL SUE!"_

_"AKIRA!"_

It was funny really. How one stupid mistake he didn't even really do could turn his life upside down so quickly.

"AKIRA!"

His eyes snapped open to the sight of his mother.

"They've decided you're going to be on probation... You'll be assigned to a man named Sojiro Sakura, a family friend of mine. That's ok with you, right?"

Akira simply nodded.

"I'm sorry about how your father acted. I don't believe what they all say, there's no way you could do something like that. That... just isn't you. I know enough about you to know that."

Akira looked down on the ground, guiltily.

"You'll... be leaving tomorrow. That's ok with you, right?"

Akira nodded again.

"I'm sorry for what happened. You had such a bright future ahead too..." She paused before sniffling. "Just be safe there, ok? Come back home next year and... and show them... prove to them that you're innocent." She said with a smile.

"HINA! DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THAT DAMN BRAT. YOU WON'T GET ANYWHERE!" A gruff voice interrupted.

"Just be safe, alright?" Akira's mother gave him one last tight embrace before she exited his room, softly closing the door behind her.

Akira curled up into a ball.

After that... came the tears.

**Notes**

**Welp, Prologue 2 aka Akira's part is done too! I do know that I did make some subtle changes from the actual game itself. (Such as Akira actually resisting arrest and insulting the shit out of Shido) That was intentional, since I don't expect Akira to be a completely silent character. The meeting between Shirou and Akira will come soon, but Shirou finding about Akira being a phantom thief/something of that sort will come much later.**

**And for the previous chapter's questions, I got Muramasa, Hephaestus, and a lot of blacksmiths in general. I also got Archer and King Arthur as possible candidates for Shirou's persona, and Ishtar is a popular one for Rin, along with Hestia. **

**For Akira's pairing, I might actually not do one at all, but the candidates so far that I can do, are Ann, Futaba, Makoto, Kawakami (Who's confidant arc I found surprisingly interesting lol), and Morgana bromance (lol). I'm probably taking out Haru since she came way too late in the game and I don't know enough about her to know how to write her romance correctly T.T. Although if people REALLY want Haru, I'll probably do a bit of research and include her pairing as well. So... so far, all characters are open, except the grown women, with Kawakami being the exception. Haru will be hard to write for me tho, so I'm scared I might fuck it up.**

**Anyways, here's a few more questions for thought.**

**1\. Should I include Persona 5 Royal content? (Such as the new DLC confidant) Of course, we don't know what the hell the content's gonna be like, but I think I can make a good estimate for Kasumi's character from what we've seen so far. And since Royal will have a third semester, that means more filler! (Also if we add in Kasumi's confidant to the cast she'll be open as a romance option as well, since I think I have a decent grasp of her character. Don't blame me if she turns out OOC after royal comes out tho lol)**

**2\. Should Shirou support the phantom thieves? Or should he go from criticizing them to supporting them after finding about the metaverse?**

**3\. What kind of character should I make Akira? Sly? Shy? Asshole? Geek? Dork? Nerd? Right now, except for his yelling at Shido, he's a bit of a blank slate in terms of how he'll interact with his friends, and I want you guys to decide what kind of person he should be.**

**Anyways, there's a slight change I'm making from the actual game too. One of my favorite parts of persona 4 were the events (King Game, Inaba Inn, etc) because those were an absolute joy to play through, and I felt persona 5 was a bit lacking in that regard. So, in the story, the phantom thieves will hang out more! At least, more than they did in the game.**


	3. Chapter 1: Settling In

_**Chapter 1: Settling In**_

**POV: Shirou**

Shirou was really thankful that Rin hadn't rented out a mansion.

Instead, she had settled for a small but homey apartment complex with a bathroom and 2 bedrooms. After all, it wasn't like they were going to be summoning servants any time soon. Worst case scenario, a single magus, or a group of dangerous magi would be responsible for the mental shutdown cases they were supposed to be investigating. Of course, there was also the best case scenario, where it wasn't connected to magecraft at all, and just a series of coincidental accidents that simply happened to perfectly correspond with each other.

But honestly, Shirou doubted that.

"Emiya-kun! Have you finished unpacking?"

In fact, Shirou had finished 'unpacking' 30 minutes ago. After all, he hadn't brought too much. His 'unpacking' had involved him stuffing a few pieces of clothing in a wardrobe. Rin, on the other hand, had brought a dangerous number of powerful magic supplies.

Well, at least she wasn't the type to obsess over designer clothing. In fact, Rin seemed to be the opposite. Instead of being obsessed over pretty shoes, bags and clothes, she invested in deadly magical items and gems that could instantly burn, freeze, shock, or disintegrate a small group of people.

He... wasn't quite sure which was better. Shirou rubbed his chin and mused. Maybe he really was a masochist.

It was that moment when Rin Tohsaka burst through his room door.

"Woah. Emiya-kun, your room's really empty." She stated. Shirou simply gave her a thumbs up in response. "Well, if you're finished unpacking, we should get down to business." She continued. "We should definitely keep our ears open for anything regarding the mental shutdown cases, but as of now, we don't have any leads yet." The tips of her lips coiled upwards to form a coy smile. "That's why..." She paused. "We're going to explore the city today! We should keep our ears open for sure, but since we don't have any leads _yet_, the best thing we can do for now is familiarize ourselves with the city around us. Besides, we have an appointment with the school."

Shirou mused. She definitely had a point. Since he had to go out for the school appointment anyways, there was no harm in doing it a bit earlier and familiarizing himself with his environment. Of course, it wasn't like a holy grail war was going to happen here, but it definitely helped to know his geography around the city. After a good while, Shirou gave Rin a thumbs up.

"All right. Let's go out for today, then." Shirou said with a light smile.

The smile disappeared, getting replaced by a look of surprise when Rin grabbed his hand, and he was quickly and easily dragged out of the room.

Rin Tohsaka was certainly full of surprises.

...

Their first stop was a coffee shop in the Yongen-Jaya district. It was called Cafe-Leblanc, and it was owned by a man named Sojiro Sakura, who sported glasses and pink clothes, complete with a comfy looking black apron. The man didn't exactly look like a classic barista, but he could sure cook up a mean cup of coffee. As Shirou tasted the creamy, natural textures and tastes in the coffee, he could easily say it was one of the most delicious coffee recipes he had ever tasted. He was almost as good as Sakura, if not even better.

The man himself was also reasonably fun to talk to. Sojiro Sakura was, at least from a first impression, laid back, witty, and enjoyable to banter with. As Shirou and Rin sipped their cups, he made idle small talk, cutting the awkward silence between the 2 parties.

"So, uh. I don't recognize you two as one of my regulars. You folks new to Tokyo?"

"Yes, actually. We come from Fuyuki city." Rin answered.

"Fuyuki, huh? I used to have a friend that lived there... He fell outta contact years ago, though. Dunno what happened to him..." He mused. "Anyways, you two enjoying the coffee? I'm extra proud of it this time. Heh."

"It's excellent, sir." Shirou quickly responded. As a cook, Sojiro Sakura had definitely gained his respect.

"Heh, no need to be so formal and polite, kid. Everybody 'round here calls me boss, so you two can call me that too." Sakura said jokingly.

"So... What's living in Tokyo like?" Shirou idly asked, although he was curious himself in that regard.

"Hmm, Tokyo? Well, I s'pose it's just like living in any other city. I ain't really the person to ask. I spend most of my time here, in my cafe. I s'pose you could call it my safe spot, away from the rest of the world."

"Huh. Have you ever heard of Shujin Academy?"

"Shujin? I heard the school has a good image, but I dunno too much about it." He paused. "You might wanna pack up and leave soon. I'm closing early today so I can take care of some business."

"Oh, ok. Sorry if we've been in inconvenience." Shirou quickly finished his cup of coffee.

...

...

...

"You two dating each other?" Sojiro asked suddenly. Shirou quickly felt a faint blush creeping up his cheeks, and beside him, Rin had a similar response.

Behind the counter, Sojiro Sakura gave a loud chuckle.

Oh, to be young again...

...

Their next stop was Shujin Academy, a relatively normal looking school that was slightly bigger and a bit more modern looking than Homurahara Academy. Rin had arranged an appointment for them in the afternoon, and after spending a longer time than expected at Leblanc due to a certain barista's banter, the two had to rush to a train to arrive on time.

Waiting for them was a buff looking man with frizzy hair, an extremely fat bald man, and a tall slender girl with brown hair and piercing red eyes. As they approached the school gate where they were waiting, Shirou suddenly got an uneasy feeling in his gut. The girl with the red eyes was looking at him and Rin with an analyzing gaze, almost as if she was trying to break them apart and study their parts with her gaze. But that wasn't what made him uneasy. He was used to intimidating stares like that after fighting in the holy grail war.

It was the buff teacher with frizzy hair that unnerved him. When Shirou looked into the man's gaze, he felt a familiar shudder creep up his spine. He had seen that exact same glint in the man's eyes somewhere before, and he couldn't grasp his hand around it.

He stopped for a split second, a lightbulb going off in his head.

'_Shinji_.' He had seen that same gaze before in Shinji Matou, well, the pre-holy grail war version of Shinji anyways.

Narrowing his eyes, Shirou resumed his walk, quickening his pace to catch up with Rin. He made a mental note in his head to watch out for the buff man. He was probably simply being paranoid after the grail war, but something in the man's gaze put a shudder in his spine.

And he didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.

Shirou straightened his shirt as he passed through the school gates.

...

"My name is Principal Kobayakawa, and welcome to Shujin academy. We are grateful to accept you into the school. Now, just to confirm, you _are_ Emiya Shirou and Tohsaka Rin, yes?"

They both nodded.

"Very good, thank you. Now, let us introduce my colleagues here." The principal smiled lightly. "This is Makoto Nijiima, the student council president, and one of your future classmates! Your homeroom will be with Ms. Chouno, who also teaches english." He paused, before continuing. "And this over here is our Gym teacher and volleyball coach, Mr. Suguru Kamoshida! Mr. Kamoshida is an olympic medalist, and he brings out amazing results for our volleyball team!" The buff man, Mr. Kamoshida, gave the two students a wide grin and winked.

The uneasy feeling in Shirou's gut was growing larger by the second. He didn't like this teacher. He didn't like him one bit.

"Now, Makoto will give you two a tour of the school, while Mr. Kamoshida and I will handle some paperwork. You may go now. We hope you enjoy your stay here." Kobayakawa said before starting to shuffle through a couple shelves.

"Let's go." Makoto simply stated, before leading Shirou and Rin out of the office.

As soon as they opened the door, they were met by a familiar face.

"Sakura-san?" They both exclaimed together.

Sojiro Sakura simply tipped his head in greeting. Behind him, was a slender tall boy who looked about Shirou's age. He had square glasses and messy black hair.

"...Hi." Shirou simply greeted.

The black haired boy simply gave him a light smile and raised his hand in greeting as he entered the principal's office.

"C'mon, we should be going." Makoto said, leading the two transfers into the hallway.

Not quite sure of what he had to do at that point, Shirou mindlessly followed.

...

"This is your homeroom, and also mine. Ms. Chouno can be a bit strict at first, but she's honestly a good teacher."

The first place they went to was Ms. Chouno's classroom. Frankly, it looked exactly like any normal classroom Shirou would expect. Blackboard, desks, chairs, chalk, everything. He idly wondered what kind of person his homeroom teacher would be like. He didn't exactly expect another Fuji-nee, but he hoped she would at least be somewhat approachable.

"This is the gym, where Mr. Kamoshida teaches. He goes extra hard on his students, but it definitely brings out good results."

The gum building was... well, just like any other gym. The one thing odd that Shirou noticed about it was that it had a volleyball net stretched out over it.

This school was really freaking enthusiastic about volleyball.

"This is the courtyard, where you can simply hang around."

The more Shirou looked at Shujin, the more it was starting to seem similar to Homurahara. He could definitely see himself going to this school for a year. Despite the fact that he wasn't even here to go to school in the first place, he definitely didn't mind the atmosphere of Shujin.

"This is the library, where you can borrow and read books."

It was slightly smaller than the one in Homurahara, but that was fine.

"This is the roof, but it's off limits."

Through every single part of the orientation, Makoto kept an extremely professional and maintained attitude. There was no particular enthusiasm in the tour, and there wasn't any particular complaining about it either. She was practically like an AI designed to do things. It was almost worrying.

After the orientation, the trio went to the courtyard and sat down awkwardly, not quite sure of what to do or say.

"Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself, Makoto-chan?" Rin asked suddenly.

"Huh?" Makoto paused. It was clear she hadn't prepared for a question like that. The red eyed girl scratched her head and mused for a while before beginning. "My name is Makoto Nijiima, I live with my sister, who works in law... I'm part of student council... and..." She paused before lightly blushing. "I like... Pandas."

That brought a pause.

"E- Eh? Is something of the matter?" She panicked, eyes slightly wide. Both Shirou and Rin let out a slight snicker.

"It's nothing, Makoto-chan. It was simply a surprise. You didn't really come off as... that type, in the orientation. I almost mistook you for some kind of robot." Rin said with her classic PR face turned on.

"Tohsaka... You weren't much better a year ag- Hhmmf!" Before Shirou could finish the comment, he felt a gentle, and _extremely painful_ hand grasping his shoulder, and Rin Tohsaka looking at him with a warm smile.

"Shut up, Emiya-_kun._" The girl said coyly.

In response, Shirou did the natural thing any man would do.

He shut up.

Close by, he heard a light snicker coming from Shujin's student council president.

"I look forward to seeing you two in homeroom. You seem pretty nice, after all." Makoto said.

In response, Rin suddenly leaned closer into Makoto and whispered something in her ear.

"Huh? Don't let Shirou near broken machines? What does that me- Hmmf!" Makoto's eyes widened for a second, before she let out a faint, "Oh."

Shirou's companion only gave her an encouraging thumbs up.

Shirou could only sigh. He had been trying to convince Rin for so long now, but it had never worked in his favor.

But honest to god, fixing broken machines was fun! It had nothing to do with his ideals. Well, it had _something_ to do with his ideals, but that wasn't the full picture.

Shirou let out a deep exhale.

Now, if only Rin would believe him...

"Well, this has been fun. But I must now go. I have duties to attend to." Makoto said. "I look forwards to seeing you in homeroom." She gave off a small smile before walking into the school building.

Shirou smiled. The girl had come off as some analyzing control freak, but she turned out to be quite nice.

Maybe, just maybe, a strange friendship had formed that day.

...

"So, Emiya-kun? How was our visit to school?"

"It seemed... Ok, I guess. I feel uneasy around Kamoshida-sensei, though. Dunno why."

"Oh, you too? Huh. I just didn't like the look he was giving me."

Rin leaned on Shirou's shoulder.

"We can't really make assumptions yet, Tohsaka. For now, we should just wait until tomorrow."

"I suppose you're right, Emiya-kun."

Shirou stared at Rin in surprise.

"Did you just say I was right?" He asked, not sure if he had heard her correctly.

The comment earned him a punch on the shoulder.

"I wonder what Shujin's gonna be like." Shirou idly wondered. In response, Rin gave him a serious look.

"Emiya-kun, I'm warning you now. You aren't allowed to turn every air conditioner into some sort of super machine. We're here to investigate a case, not to be tech support for Shujin."

"But what if someone needs help?" Shirou asked innocently.

"E- Erm.. Well... I suppose you can help someone if they ask for it-" She paused before quickly saying, "But you're not allowed to do it to perfectly working machines, ok Emiya-kun?"

"Y- Yes Ma'am..."

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing... Nothing at all..."

"Don't lie to me, Emiya-kun~"

"E- Eh?"

Rin only smiled coyly in response, before she suddenly let out a sigh.

"It's so strange though..." She mused. "We're in Tokyo together, _alone_, looking for clues on an incident we know nothing about." She paused. "Shirou, don't you ever feel lost when you do this? I mean, you're a magus. How do you plan to spend the rest of your life?"

"Hmm? I... Dunno. I suppose I'll just be helping people until I die."

Rin let out a chuckle.

"Of course. What did I expect. You're such an enigma sometimes, Emiya-kun. It's honestly weird how you're so relaxed about people taking advantage of you. Aren't you scared that I might be doing the same thing?"

Shirou simply shrugged. "Doing this makes me happy. To be honest, the ideals and dreams I pursue..." He chuckled. "They're those of a fool. Archer's drilled that in my head enough for me to know." Shirou paused. "But in the end, it does make me happy. And that's the truth. Seeing people smile... It's the best feeling ever." He sighed, kicking empty air in an absentminded motion. "I know it's stupid to wish for an ending where everyone's happy... But I think... There's a strange appeal in it."

He suddenly started to laugh, and Rin stared at the boy in confusion.

"Geez, I'm really starting to wonder if I'm actually a masochist."

Rin shook her head in disappointment. "You already are, Emiya-kun." She broke into a grin. "But not for long! I promised I would fix you, Emiya-kun. And I'm a woman of my word."

Shirou smirked. "I'm still fixing broken Air Cons."

...

...

...

"Emiya-kun!"

* * *

**Switch POV: Akira**

* * *

'_Fucking hell._'

Akira Kurusu was having trouble. Trouble in navigating Tokyo.

By nature, he was a country boy. He had been birthed, raised, and had spent his entire life in a small town that could very easily be described as being in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Drop him in a city like Tokyo, the fucking capital of the nation, and it was basically a freaking guarantee that he would get lost one way or the other.

'_Yongen Jaya, Yongen Jaya..._'

He paused, wracking his head.

"AAH! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" He exclaimed, slouching.

"Can't take what anymore?" A voice interrupted.

Shit.

The voice belonged to a red haired boy who was about his height, with strange looking golden eyes. Beside him was a girl with black hair and a red outfit.

Thankfully, the boy looked like he had no foul intentions, and simply asked out of curiosity.

Akira scratched his head in embarrassment, feeling heat rise up his cheeks out of the thought that someone had seen him in such a state.

"Um, are you alright?" The red haired boy asked, looking concerned.

"No! I'm not freaking alright." Akira groaned. '_I literally just got arrested and put on probation for an entire freaking year for HELPING SOMEONE! Do I **look** alright?_' "Er, do you know by any chance... where Yongen Jaya is?"

"Yeah, we actually just came from Yongen Jaya. You just have to go over there, turn a corner, and go left."

"Oh. Thank you!" Akira quickly thanked the two strangers before he bolted out of sight.

'_Now, I just need to get to Cafe Leblanc...'_

Thankfully, the last part was easy. The cafe was rather simple to locate once he entered the district.

Thank god for that. Hallelujah amen.

He opened the door to the cafe and was greeted with the sight of one Sojiro Sakura, dressed in his ordinary pink clothes.

"Y- You're... Sojiro Sakura-san, right?" Akira asked carefully.

"And if I'm not mistaken, you're Akira Kurusu?"

'_YES! YES! I FINALLY FOUND IT. I'VE FOUND THE FUCKING HOLY GRAIL.'_

Akira did a small happy dance on the spot.

The barista only blinked in confusion.

"Oooo kay... You certainly aren't what I expected..."

"Hehe, did you expect some huge buff bald dude who has dragon tattoos and 3 nose rings?"

"Yup. You _definitely_ aren't what I expected. You sure you're a criminal?"

"Yes, Sakura-san. I'm an illegal drug dealer and a serial killer who's bad to the bone." Akira stated, sarcasm lacing his voice.

Sojiro only sighed.

'_What the hell have I gotten warped up into this time... I wish the two others kids would come back. They were so much more manageable...'_

"A'right, kid. Come follow me. I'm gonna show you your bedroom."

Akira followed the older man in silence.

...

**Notes**

**Ok, so as you can tell, this chapter is 3000 words long. However, once the story starts picking up, I intend to make 5000 word chapters, so don't worry if you feel the chapter length is too short.**

**Now, apart from Shirou already getting a bad feeling about Kamoshida, and some fluff at the end of his POV, the big thing of this chapter is Akira's introduction. As a character, I've decided to make Akira slightly sassy/sarcastic and sly, but also a dorky goof at the same time. So think Edgelord Minato + Troll Yu from P4A. (Some people hate Troll Yu, but I found him absolutely freaking hilarious, and one of the only parts of P4A that I enjoyed as much as the game) That's kind of what Akira's character is going to be like.**

**Now, this chapter has mostly been Shirou centered, but the next chapter will definately focus more on Akira. Specifically, his initial experiences with Kamoshida's palace, and how he awakens his Persona.**

**And since Shirou and Rin are technically third years, I've decided to make them initially friends with Makoto, and they will join right before she joins the phantom thieves, or at the same time she does. I haven't fully decided this yet.**

**And as for Shirou and Rin's personas, (If they do get them)**

**For Shirou we have: Muramasa, Hephaestus, King Arthur, Best boy Gilgamesh (If this becomes a thing I'm gonna make Mongreldolaon an actual move, and no one can stop me), Archer, and a ton of other blacksmiths as well.  
**

**For Rin... We have: Hestia, Ishtar, and someone I forgot the name of.**

**Also, I've decided to scrap the Persona 5 Royal stuff, but you can still decide if you want Kasumi to be part of the cast. (And she's the only part of Royal that comes into the story)**

**For what's coming next, for a good while, Shirou and Rin are probably going to help Makoto with her upside down magazine stalking.**

**Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!**


	4. Omake 1: Cooking

**It might be a while before I upload the next actual chapter to this story, so to keep you busy, here's my first Omake.**

**Hope you enjoy.**

_**Omake #1: Cooking, Guest Starring Saber/Lanc**__**er**_

"Woah..."

"Who's that?"

"Damn! She looks hot!"

"Jesus christ, that's a big spear."

The phantom thieves, Shirou, and Rin were currently gathered around the Emiya-Tohsaka apartment kitchen, with 2 strange looking figures.

One of them was clad in a skintight blue outfit, with an extremely long, deadly looking red spear.

The other one was a beautiful blond woman with blue and silver armor.

"Alright!" Shirou smiled and stood up, grabbing the attention of the group. "Do any of you know how to cook?"

"I can do it quite well." Makoto replied.

"I can cook curry..." Akira said.

"Nope. No can do." Ryuji exclaimed.

"I think I can..." Answered Ann.

"I'm a cat."

"I have been dying to learn the art of cooking for long. Surely, it shall complete my journey to become a true artist!" Yosuke stood up and announced.

"Mostly it was my maids..." Haru looked rather dejected.

Meanwhile, the two servants in the room had the same response.

"We forgot."

Shirou sighed.

They had a lot of work to do.

...

_Cu Chulainn stood tall, his spear held in a tight grasp beside him. The spear swinging hero had emerged from countless battles victorious, with his wit and his weapon alone. In front of him, lies one final test. One final great, almighty challenge for the hero to overcome, to claim his title of a worthy hero._

_He tightens his grasp on his spear, readjusting his feet and form, ready to strike._

"Dude, what the fuck is he doing?"

"Dunno, but it looks cool. Let's just wait and see."

_He summons his true power, the strength within his weapon, as he draws it and jumps high into the air. Narrowing his eyes, he grasps his target within his field of view, and tightens his muscles around his arm to strike. His will, iron clad. His soul, filled with raging willpower. His eyes filled with a fire of determination as he prepares to strike._

_**'This is my last chance! My final shot!'**_

_**"Here I come!" **A pause. Utter silence. Calm before the storm._

**_"GAE__ BOLG!"_**

_Cu Chulainn throws his mighty spear at his target, his throw striking true, towards the heart of his enemy. The spear bursts it open, turning it into a splash of red, and drilling through the wall behind it._

Then, Rin came out of the bathroom.

"What. The. Fuck happened to the wall?"

"Rin... We have insurance, right?" Shirou carefully asked.

The sound of cracking knuckles could be heard.

After about 5 minutes, Cu Chulainn met his end.

"Shirou...?" Rin asked.

"Hmm?"

"What's... Saber doing?"

...

...

...

"Oh no."

...

"DIE! DIE, FILTHY PEASANTS! HAHAHAHA! YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD FUCKING REVOLT AGAINST ME? **_YOU FUCKING MONGRELS!?_**" Saber swung the Excalibur at one enemy after another.

"AAAAH! MY EYE! MY FUCKING EYE! YOU... YOU FILTHY PEASANT! HOW DARE YOU! I AM YOUR KING, YOU FILTHY FUCKING MONGREL! AAAH! DIE! DIE! _**DIE**_!"

Saber chopped another onion into two.

"Rin...?"

"...Yes?"

"Has saber been hanging out with Gilgamesh?"

"I... Don't really know."

"You think we should just leave her to do her thing?"

"My heart says no but my brain says yes."

"I think... You should listen to your brain this time." Shirou concluded.

"Bro, is this like just another tuesday for you?" Ryuji asked.

Shirou looked at Ryuji and nodded.

"Dude..." Ryuji had a dead serious look on his face.

"You gotta let me live with you."

...

**I don't know why this became a thing. Blame it on boredom.**


	5. Chapter 2: Per-So-Na!

_**Chapter 2: Per-So-Na!**_

Akira Kurusu was not excited to go to Shujin Academy.

And no, it wasn't because he didn't want to go to school. He was completely fine with school, thank you very much. In fact, he even liked school! No, it didn't have to do with not liking school at all. Especially since Shujin's campus seemed much nicer compared to the one in his home town. But in the end, Akira didn't want to go to Shujin. Plain and simple. After all, who would want someone with a freaking criminal record in their class? He could still feel the scowl of the principal etched inside his mind. For a year, he would be a complete, utter outcast. Hated by the staff and teachers. It wouldn't matter if he performed well, or acted good, or treated everyone nicely. Because that shit didn't count for anything. The only thing that actually counted for _anything_ in his life on probation, was a framed document that detailed an assault that never happened in the first place.

And there was also that olympic winning Gym teacher. Was his name Kamoshida? Kamushida? Kameshida? Akira didn't care. Either way, the guy looked like a total, utter creep. The type that would go up to underage students and ask them for sexy time with a cup of whiskey.

But of course, he still had to attend. He had to show people how he was a good, honest, humble, and _good_ kid.

It was utter bullshit. Doing that for a year? For what? A pat on the head and a "Congratulations" sticker?

Fuck off.

He would do it, sure. But only because it was how he normally acted. He wasn't a delinquent, he was a completely normal kid who tended to goof off a little more than average.

'_Maybe I should start skinning cats. Sure would satisfy the cops._'

With a sigh, Akira hefted his bag and made his way towards what was hopefully the station.

...

Aaaaaaand he was lost again. Absolutely great. He was ecstatic at the new development. Freaking _overjoyed_, that's what.

Why did nothing go his way?

He looked around for anyone to ask for directions. He found an old lady with a walking stick who looked kind enough to provide him an answer, and went up to her.

"Um, miss? Do you know where the train station could be?"

"Of course, dear! Just go straight forwards, and you'll reach it soon enough!"

...

...

...

"T- Thank you." Akira answered, mentally slapping his forehead. So it was actually just straight ahead? He just needed to walk a little more?

Either way, he had no excuses.

When it came to finding directions, Akira was a fucking idiot. A _baka._

Regaining his composure, the high schooler put on a warrior's face and started to march forwards... Until the old lady's voice interrupted him again.

"It's the other way, dear."

Akira could only slouch in response.

_..._

After a good while of walking, Akira finally found the station.

He got down on his knees and thanked the lord, gaining strange looks from the pedestrians around him.

"Dude. The hell are you doing?" The voice came from a slouching blond boy with a thin, athletic frame.

He also happened to wear a Shujin uniform.

Akira stood up in embarrassnent and quickly dusted his clothes before replying, "Um, nothing. I... Tripped."

"You tripped and chanted hallelujah amen."

"Yes! I always do that when I trip. NowIneedtogoquicklybecauseI'mabouttomissmytrainohmygoshthere'sonlyoneminuteleft!Seeyoubye!." Avoiding the situation, Akira rapidly waddled away from the blond boy and into the station.

He broke into a sprint, quickly entering the subway before the blond boy could chase after him.

Meanwhile, still outside the station, Ryuji Sakamoto asked himself...

'_What the fuck?'_

...

Akira stepped out of the train station.

'_Thank god that's over._'

He quickly walked forwards to get to school and avoid being late on his first day of school.

Unfortunately, it was raining. Shit.

Akira quickly took shelter in front of a nearby shop. He then took out his phone to check the time, allthewhile begging for the rain to stop.

That was when the app appeared again. The same one that had suddenly appeared a day ago without any warning.

'_Is this some kinda virus...?'_

Akira mindlessly deleted the app before pocketing his phone again. Now, he had to tackle the problem of how the hell he would get to school.

That was when the girl with the hoodie showed up next to him.

...

Ann Takamaki hated the rain.

She had been on her way to school when the water started to pour, so she took refuge in front of a nearby shop. She hadn't noticed the strange looking boy standing in front of it, however, until he was staring at her for a good 10 seconds. Ann was about to give him a sharp look. She had gotten stares before, from a various multitude of perverts, pedophiles, creeps, and assholes.

So why was this one different?

The boy didn't have any predatory look on his face. Instead, it was something more of the likes of... Curiosity? It was almost as if he was asking, "Who are you?" with his eyes.

It was a welcome change, but a strange one. A _very_ strange one.

But as a familiar car drove up the street, Ann found herself wishing that she could hide behind the strange boy, stare or no stare. It was 99 percent going to be better than the stare of the man waiting inside the car.

Suguru Kamoshida.

The gym teacher opened up the car window, and peeked out.

"Hey, Takamaki! Want a ride to school?" The teacher asked.

Ann took a deep breath before putting on a strained smile.

'_This is for Shiho._'

"Yes, of course!" Ann made her way over to the car, and went inside. Kamoshida grinned fiercely, enjoying his victory over the blond girl. As she looked outside the window, she saw the boy with the black hair giving her a friendly wave as the car slowly started to accelerate.

Ann sighed.

Oh what she would give to be in his place.

...

After the blond girl left, Akira noticed a familiar figure coming towards his direction.

'_Oh no no no no no no no no **nonononono. Oh god no.**__'_

The boy turned to face him, and Akira felt the sudden desire to run away to Brazil.

"Oi! You're the kid who tripped in the station!" His face turned into a scowl. "What now, ya plannin' to rat me out to Kamoshida?"

"...What?" Akira questioned.

"Ya know. Kamoshida. He's the guy who was in the car just know." Pfft. Like he didn't know that.

"I am aware."

"...And?"

"And? And what?"

"Wait, what?"

"Why would I rat you out? You didn't do anything, right?"

"Yeah... But he's Kamoshida." The boy said as if that would explain everything in the world.

'_The fuck am I supposed to say?'_

"...So?"

"Dude, you some kinda amnesiac or something?" The blond boy had an inridiculous look on his face.

"Don't think so." Akira replied.

"Kamoshida! Gym teacher, king of the school!"

"...And...?" Akira narrowed his eyes.

"The pervert goes around doing everything he wants. Like the school is his castle or somethin'. At least, that's what I think..." He paused. "Wait, you don't know about this? You for real?"

"Yes I think I'm real." Akira was practically smirking at this point.

"AAH! That's not what I meant! You go to Shujin, right?"

"No, I'm a 40 year old pedophile who has a heroin problem."

"Imma pretend I didn't hear that. You're a second year, right?"

"I think I am."

"Then you're in the same grade as me. Never seen you before, though."

"I'm from the moon."

"Wait, you are?" The blond boy, just for a split second, had a look of utter curiosity in his face.

It was enough to make Akira burst into laughter.

"I'm a transfer student." He finally replied.

"Transfer student, huh? I guess that explains things. Anyways, we probably gotta get to school now. C'mon, I know a shortcut. Name's Ryuji Sakamoto by the way." The boy introduced himself.

"Akira Kurusu." Akira replied back.

Akira followed Ryuji, enduring the rain that poured down.

'_Huh. He seems like a pretty nice dude... Maybe Shujin won't be so bad after all_'

Akira dozed off into his thoughts, following Ryuji into the 'shortcut.'

Meanwhile, in his pocket, his phone lit up into a red and black spiral.

...

"Dude..."

"You sure this is the right shortcut?"

"I'm absolutely sure! I've been down here like... a thousand times before!"

"Did you take a sniff of cocaine for breakfast this morning?"

"No! Wait, what?"

"Because I'm pretty sure the school doesn't look like the fucking Disneyland palace." He snapped.

"Um... I dunno, man. Maybe they renovated?"

"Yes, Ryuji. They renovated a perfectly normal looking school into the fucking Mushroom Kingdom in the length of a day. Truly, you are a genius."

"Jeez, no need to be so sassy."

"Can't help it, man. It's in my nature."

"Well... Wanna go in?" Ryuji finally asked.

After thinking about it for a while, Akira simply shrugged.

It couldn't hurt to look around...

...Right?

* * *

**POV: Shirou**

* * *

"Morning, Tohsaka."

"Morning, Emiya-kun."

Shirou greeted his companion early in the morning while cooking breakfast. As usual, Rin had a slightly tired look in her eyes that Shirou kind of found cute. It was amusing that the perfect, calm, calculating first rate magus... was not a morning person.

The redhead chuckled.

"Manage not to break the alarm clock today?" He joked.

"What do you expect?" Rin responded tiredly.

Shirou finished breakfast. It was a simple western dish, since he didn't have the ingredients to make a full on gourmet meal. Just fried eggs and bacon, with 2 slices of toast. It was nothing special, but very well cooked.

He subtly wondered how good Archer was at cooking. If he had thousands of more years of experience, would he be some kind of master chief?

"Breakfast is ready, Tohsaka."

Still slouching, his girlfriend made her way over to the table and silently started to eat.

"Sorry that it's so plain. I didn't bring any cooking ingredients here to Tokyo." Shirou apologized sheepishly, finishing off the dishes. He sat down on the table and started to eat.

"Don't worry, Emiya-kun. That isn't a problem. Anyways, what's the time right now?"

"Um, about 7 o'clock."

...

...

...

"WHAT!?" Suddenly forgetting about how tired she was, Rin furiously finished up her breakfast and sprinted towards her room to get ready and get changed.

Shirou idly sipped on his cup of coffee, grinning.

'_She's gonna kill me when she finds out it's actually 6:40...'_

Shirou finished breakfast and stretched his arms.

Oh, the joys of being a morning person.

...

"Emiya-kun, that was rude of you." Rin scolded.

"It's your fault for falling for it 3 times now." Shirou jokingly responded.

Thankfully, their apartment was reasonably close to the school, so they could simply walk to Shujin without taking the subway. Not that he would have minded, though.

The couple entered the front gate of the school, and encountered a familiar face.

"Makoto!" Rin exclaimed. The brown haired girl turned towards them and her lips coiled slightly upwards into an extremely faint smile.

"Emiya-san, Tohsaka-chan. It is good to see you." The girl politely greeted.

"You too, Nijiima-chan. School starts in 4 minutes, correct?"

"Yes, it would be best if we hurry upstairs. We wouldn't want to be late on our first day."

Shirou couldn't agree more. The trio quickened their pace towards the school, and Shirou idly wondered what Shujin academy would be like.

...

It turns out, Ms. Chouno was absolutely nothing like Taiga Fujimura. While the Tiger of Fuyuki was excitable, friendly, and energetic, Shirou's homeroom teacher at Shujin was calm, inquisitive, and strict. Despite all this, Shirou had to admit that she knew her stuff well. A little too well, perhaps.

Overall, Shirou decided that he liked Shujin Academy.

Unfortunately, he couldn't say the same about its students.

Everywhere he went, Shirou heard whispers. Whispers about a new transfer student, whispers about the teachers, about the new transfer student skinning cats, about him and Rin, about the principal, about _everything_. It was honestly extremely unnerving. Back in Homurahara academy there were definitely whispers and rumors going around, but it wasn't nearly to this scale. It was almost like Shujin was like one giant rumor machine.

It unnerved him. And he didn't like it one bit.

Lunchtime had just passed, and apparently a student with a criminal record arrived to school late.

According to Shujin students, said criminal was a rapist, a cannibal, a thief, a murderer, and a sadist.

Now that was just ridiculous. Anyone with common sense wouldn't fully believe a statement like that.

A ringing noise signaled the end of lunch time.

It was time to go back to class.

* * *

**POV: Akira**

* * *

"Aw... man. That hurt like shit." Ryuji Sakamoto groaned.

"We really shouldn't have messed with those dudes."

"You're saying that now? You coulda showed that restraint before you called them armored _oompa loompas_!"

"In my defense, I don't even think they knew what that meant."

"But jeez, this sucks. How the hell are we gonna get outta here?"

The two boys were currently sitting in a prison cell, with Ryuji desperately grasping the bars. Out of nowhere, an 'armored oompa loompa' approached the cell, sword and shield raised in a striking position.

Not a moment after however, a familiar figure approached the two students.

"Kamoshida!?" Ryuji exclaimed.

Indeed, the figure looked exactly the same as the Shujin gym teacher, except he had startling yellow eyes.

"The hell is happening here?" Akira suddenly yelled, breaking character from his usually joking attitude.

"Heh. I thought it was some petty thief, but to think it was you, Sakamoto. Are you trying to disobey me again? Looks like you haven't learned your lesson after all, haven't you?" The gym teacher's mouth curved upwards into a sickly smile. "And you brought a friend this time... Because you can't do anything for yourself."

"Says the guy in a fucking bathrobe surrounded by buff green dudes." Akira snarkily remarked.

"Shut up! How dare you speak that way to a king! It seems that you don't understand your position here at all!"

"No, but I understand that you look fucking ridiculous in that outfit."

"I SAID SHUT UP! Not only did you come into my castle, you insulted _me_, the king. The punishment for that is death! Guards, take them away!" He proclaimed. "It's time for an execution!"

Shit.

"Dude! **_Constraint!_**"

"Sorry!"

Akira felt strong arms grasp his own.

As he was dragged out of the room, he couldn't help but think that the situation he was in right now was oddly similar to his previous arrest.

Just his luck.

...

"I'll have this one executed first!" Kamoshida yelled.

They had been dragged to another prison room similar to their's in everything but size.

This one, was much larger.

"A peasant like you isn't worth beating."

A guard kicked Ryuji in the face. _Hard._

"I'll have you killed... Right now." Kamoshida ordered.

'_Fuck, what am I supposed to do? Is he actually gonna kill him? Oh god, what do I do, what do I do...'_

"Oi! Fuckface!" Akira suddenly yelled out.

Kamoshida turned around.

'_Well shit I should have thought this through more...'_

"Um... You're ugly as shit! Did you know that?" He blurted out, desperate to get the robed man's attention.

"Dude, are you _trying_ to get yourself killed?" Ryuji asked with disbelief.

'_Freaking idiot!'_

"Um...! Kamoshida! You are... a... a dickless dick!" Akira mentally slapped his head. "No! I mean... You're a piece of shit!" Akira glared at Kamoshida, who leaned in towards him.

"Do you really wish for death? Hehe, very well. Guards! Kill him first."

'_Ok, I'm not sure what I expected. C'mon, Ryuji buddy, help me out here.'_

Ryuji remained silent.

"Fucking asshole!" Akira groaned. This was really not working towards his favor. As the guards pushed him and restrained him against the wall, he resisted with all of his strength.

'_No... It can't end like this! I need to prove that I'm innocent first! I need... I need to go back home! I can't die like this! **I can't!**'_

Suddenly, a blue butterfly fluttered towards him.

"_**That was pathetic, human. But I suppose it is not my place to blame you.**_"

_'What? Is that... a voice inside my head? Can no one else hear this?'_

"_**This is truly an unjust game, your chances of winning are almost none.**_"

Akira kept kicking the guards to no avail.

"_**But**** if my voice reaches out to you, perhaps there is still hope. There may be... a possibility open to you.**_"

Akira stopped resisting.

"_**What are you going to do? Are you going to just sit there and let yourself be killed? You obviously have regrets. Does that mean your previous decision to save your friend was a mistake? Or your decision to help the lady?**_"

Akira grimaced. Whoever the hell the voice was, it was asking hard questions.

But deep inside, he knew the answer.

'_The hell it was._'

"_**HA! There may yet be hope for you, then. Very well, I recognize your resolve.**_"

Akira felt a sharp pain coursing throughout his entire body, as if his blood turned into liquid fire. He gasped before maintaining a stern gaze, making Kamoshida look at him curiously.

_**I am thou, thou art I...**_

_**Thou art who willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice!**_

_**Call upon my name, and RELEASE THY RAGE!**_

_**SHOW THE STRENGTH OF THY WILL TO ASCERTAIN ALL ON THY OWN, THOUGH THOU BE CHAINED TO HELL ITSELF!**_

"EXECUTE HIM!" Kamoshida yelled, pointing a finger at Akira.

The shield came first. It bashed down onto his head and knocked off his glasses.

And then, came the wind.

It was as furious as a thunderstorm, like the winds of hell itself. It blew away the balance of Kamoshida and the guards.

But through it all, Akira's eyes remained wide open.

The next thing he knew, a mask was on his head. Akira didn't know where exactly the mask came from, or what was its nature. Hell, he didn't even know _when_ the mask appeared in his body.

But he knew one thing.

It was him, and he was it.

_I am thou indeed._

With all of his might, he ripped the mask off his face, struggling at first. As the mask slowly started to come off, Akira started to feel a sharp pain on his face, as it started to draw blood.

'_Jesus, maybe I took that phrase a little **too **literally'_

Yelling in pain, the teenager finally finished taking the mask off his face, and slouched for a brief moment, his frizzy hair obscuring his eyes.

When he lifted his head again, his eyes were yellow.

Brilliant blue fire started to surround him, spreading from his eyes to his torso, arm, and leg, until it covered every single inch of his body. But for Akira, the fire didn't burn. It was _warm._

In the middle of the fire, a wide grin appeared, and soon, the fire turned into a huge man with a red tuxedo.

The fire spread to every corner of the room, blowing back the guards.

And in the middle of it all, stood Akira, with a black trench coat and a crazy looking grin.

"**_I am the pillager of twilight, ARSENE!_**'

Akira cracked his knuckles.

"Let's begin, shall we?" The boy posed flamboyantly, pointing at the guards.

"Arsene!" He called out.

"Yes?" The gentleman thief answered, scaring the shit out of Ryuji.

"_Ravage them._"

...

The guards split into a red and black mush before turning into their true forms.

This time, they were shaped like Jack-o-lanterns.

Thankfully, Akira knew what to do.

"Arsene! EIHA!" A pillar of shadows came up from the ground and damaged the jack-o-lantern.

Akira finished it off with his knife.

"_**This power of mine is yours to command! Kill them however you want. Run wild to your heart's content!**_"

'_Duly noted._' Akira mentally answered with a smirk.

"EIHA!" The boy yelled, finishing off the second monster in the room.

The fight was over.

"Dude... What the hell was that?" Ryuji asked carefully, with slight fear in his voice.

Before Akira could answer, Kamoshida walked up to him, murder in his eyes.

"You little..." Was all the teacher could say before Ryuji tackled the man to the ground. Akira stifled a laugh at the sight.

"You like that, you son of a bitch?" Ryuji yelled.

"_**I like this**_ **_kid._**"

'_Shut up Arsene._'

"Ryuji! Lock the cell!" Akira yelled, making the boy notice the key in the middle of the room. Quickly, he sprinted over and took it, and not a moment later, Akira and Ryuji were both standing outside of the prison cell, while a certain PE teacher was stuck inside.

Once they were finally safe, Ryuji gasped for breath, still surprised at the events that had transpired.

"Dude, what the hell just happened? What's that outfit?"

In response, Akira's clothing went back to his Shujin Academy uniform, and the boy gave a simple shrug.

"Woah, it went back to normal? The hell is happening here?"

"YOU BASTARDS! YOU FILTHY MONGRELS! YOU DARE IMPR-"

"Shut up Undies." Akira interrupted, sighing. Frankly, he had no freaking clue what was happening, and the half naked man in a bathrobe was not helping the situation at all.

"Akira! We should scram. Lead the way!" Ryuji yelled, and the two teens ran off to escape.

Meanwhile, Suguru Kamoshida grasped at the prison bars in rage.

"God damn thieves!"

...

"Dude..." _Pant._ "We've been at this" _Pant._ "For literally an hour now. Where do you think the exit is?"

"I don't know. This place is really freaking big..." Akira slumped. They had been searching for an exit for as long as they could remember, and yet, the door to outside the castle had eluded their sights.

That was when they heard the yell.

"Please! Help me! I've been here for so long! Blondie! Frizzy hair! Come here!"

"Woah, did you hear that?"

Akira nodded. "We should probably check it out."

The two made their way towards the sound, and gasped when they found the source of the noise.

"Is that... a Ca-"

"Don't call me a cat! I am not a freaking cat! Say that again and I'll castrate you!"

Ryuji recoiled with a grimace. "Jeez, that thing's real freaking aggressive..."

The strange creature rolled its eyes and groaned. "Anyways, that's not the point! You aren't soldiers of this castle, right? Get me out of here, please!"

Ryuji narrowed his eyes. "We're trying to get the hell outta here! And how do we know you aren't an enemy!"

"I'm _locked inside a cage, numbskull!_"

Ryuji ignored the creature and checked his phone. "Damn... there isn't any service here. How the hell do we get out?"

The creature's eyes suddenly sparkled with hope. "You're trying to get out of here too, right? Let me out of here and I'll show you the exit!"

"You think we should believe, that? How gullible are you?" Ryuji retorted.

...

...

...

"Do you know the exit?" Akira asked.

"Dude, you seriously trusting this thing here?" Ryuji asked with a ridiculous tone to his voice.

Akira ignored him. "Do you know the exit?" The cat-like creature fiercely nodded.

"I never go back on my word!"

Making his decision, Akira picked up the keys.

"Dude... You serious here?" Akira shrugged in response.

"It won't do any harm either way."

The creature stepped out from the prison cell. "Aaaah, freedom! Finally!" It stretched in happiness.

"Now, where's the exit, you... Cat-thing?" Ryuji asked aggressively. In response, the creature's eyes got a dangerous glint.

"Don't call me a cat, idiot! I am _Morgana!_" It yelled.

"_Baka,_ Ryuji. _Baka_." Akira added with a sly grin.

"Dude, you too? Ah, fuck it. We need to get out of here first." Ryuji looked betrayed. Akira simply laughed in response.

"Now, let's get the hell outta here."

...

The two students arrived at the gates of Shujin.

"Is this for real...?" Ryuji questioned.

"That's exactly what we wanted to ask you. We received a call from the police." The counselor suddenly walked towards the two tardy students, followed by a buff gym teacher. "It's rare not to see you roaming alone. Where have you been for all this time, Sakamoto-kun?"

"Uhhhh, a castle?" Ryuji answered carefully.

Akira slapped himself on the forehead. '_Idiot._'

"**_If it helps, I share your sentiment._**"

'_Shut up Arsene.' _The response was met by a hearty chuckle in his mind.

"What's this about a castle?" A familiar voice interrupted.

Akira scowled. It was his new most hated teacher of all time.

Suguru Kamoshida.

"You seem so carefree, Sakamoto. Quite a difference from when you did morning practice for the track team."

"Shut up! It's your fault that-"

"How _dare_ you speak to Mr. Kamoshida that way?" The counselor interrupted.

Great. Someone new to hate.

"He's the one that provoked me!" Ryuji was enraged.

"Do you really want to be expelled, Sakamoto?" The counselor questioned.

Akira gritted his teeth. He really wanted to throw an insult or two at the counselor, but resisted the urge. This time, he was on probation, and Ryuji was with him.

The jokes and insults would come later.

"In any case, you'll have to explain yourself. Follow me!"

Ryuji sighed, a slumped before he followed the man into the school.

Leaving Akira with an asshole of a gym teacher.

"You're that new transfer student, right?" Kamoshida asked. "Have we met somewhere?"

Akira smiled coyly. "Maybe."

"Is that meant to be funny?"

"...Maybe."

Kamoshida scowled. "I'll overlook this just for today, but cause any trouble and you'll be expelled, understand?"

Akira's smile widened. "I understand, _sensei._"

Kamoshida wasn't amused. "Going through a rebellious phase, huh? Well, lemme tell you this, kid." The man glared at Akira. "You aren't the hero, kid. You aren't _anyone_. You're just a kid with a criminal record, going to an academy that you don't belong in. Shujin academy is no place for Delinquents like you. Let me make this clear, one time and _only_ one time. I don't like you kid. People, delinquents like you take advantage of rare opportunities that people would _kill_ for, and waste them on your petty lives. Now, I suggest you don't keep Ms. Kawakami waiting."

Akira gritted his teeth, but forced himself to smile.

"You'll eat your words someday, Sensei." He calmly replied before he entered Shujin Academy.

And behind him, Suguru Kamoshida narrowed his eyes. And if Akira had stayed for longer, he would have had glimpsed a speck of fear on the medalist's face.

...

"You're 4 hours late." Sadayo Kawakami had a _very_ unimpressed look on her face.

"Sorry Ms!" Akira grimaced.

The teacher sighed. "You better have a good explanation for this..."

"I... Got lost." Akira cringed. The excuse was a cliche one and a shitty one a that, but he wasn't exactly all too creative when it came to things like these.

Kawakami looked unimpressed. "You were lost... Until lunchtime."

"...I... Was very lost."

"Kurusu-kun, you're a terrible liar. But this is your first offense, so I'll let it go. And I suppose you were still getting used to the area." Kawakami stated with a disappointed look on her face. There was no hate, or malice in her expression. It was utter disappointment.

Akira looked down in guilt. He felt rather bad for the teacher. She didn't seem like Kamoshida, in fact, she seemed like a rather good person.

'_Great, now I wish I had a **bad** teacher...'_

_"**Calm down, child. As she said, this is only your first offense after all. If you want to TRULY rile her up, you must commit many more despicable acts!**"_

Akira gritted his teeth. '_Arsene, that doesn't help at all._'

All he heard was a chuckle in his head, followed by a wave of unrestrained laughter.

'_Asshole..._'

"Anyways, that isn't the biggest problem." Kawakami blankly stated. Akira looked at her curiously.

"Huh?"

"I was told you were caught with that Sakamoto-kun."

"What's wrong with him? He seemed like a nice guy to me, if not a little bit goofy."

'_Much nicer than some of your faculty members._'

Kawakami only sighed and shook her head. "Don't get involved with him, ok? He's nothing but trouble. You don't want your reputation here to lower even more..."

Akira gritted his teeth, scowling. Without knowing, Kawakami had hit a sensitive spot for the boy.

'_C'mon, keep it in. Keep it in. Keep it in!'_

"_**So boring. Let it out, child! Do not restrain your anger!**_"

...

Fuck you Arsene.

"What am I supposed to do? The teachers despise me, the principal thinks I'm a plague, and _don't think_ I can't hear what the students whisper when they think I can't hear them." He went into a mock imitation of a female Shujin student. "_Oh, I heard Kurusu's gonna stab you if you look him in the eye. I heard he skins rabbits for fun! Why is he even here in this school? He's a danger, expel him already!_" The boy bit his lip, restraining himself. "At least Sakamoto was nice enough to give me a chance."

Akira sighed.

'_God dammit Arsene. I'm not supposed to talk about this in front of my FREAKING HOMEROOM TEACHER!'_

Unfortunately, the gentleman thief was howling in laughter.

"**_Oh ho ho! You should have seen your face! AHAHA! You looked so angry! Thank you, child. That was utterly refreshing!_**"

Akira groaned in exasperation. The persona in his mind was not helping his situation at all.

He sighed. "Just show me where homeroom is. I'll wait there till lunch." His expression morphed into a scowl once more.

"I've lost my appetite anyways."

...

For Sadayo Kawakami, the new boy was an enigma. She had seen his records, but she certainly hadn't expected the boy that showed up at the faculty office.

First of all, he looked nothing like a criminal. His slender build and glasses made him look more like a nerd with a sharp tongue, and not someone that would willingly insult someone. Certainly not someone who carried around a knife to school, as the students said.

Her confusion deepened when he started to complain about his situation. The boy certainly had a sharp ear, but she had _not_ expected a rant of his sort from a boy with a criminal record.

When she led the boy towards her homeroom, she was still confused.

Just who the hell was Akira Kurusu?

...

"By the way, when you introduce yourself, don't do anything... Extra, ok? And be serious about it, even if you're lying to the class. You don't want to cause a ruckus." Kawakami stated.

Akira bit his lip. "No offense sensei, but I think my presence alone is gonna cause a ruckus."

Kawakami couldn't offer anything in response. The teacher only bit her lip and looked down.

...

The whispers reached Akira's ears as soon as the classroom door opened.

"Being super late on his first day? Damn, he really is insane..."

"He looks normal though..."

"Quiet! He might slug you if you look him in the eye!"

Kawakami chose that moment to interrupt. "Settle down." She paused. "Well, I'd like to introduce a transfer student. Akira Kurusu. He was feeling sick this morning so we had him come to school in the afternoon... Alright, say something to the class."

Akira stepped forwards. "Hi." He then started to walk towards the only empty seat in the class.

As he walked towards his seat, he noticed the same blond girl from earlier that morning.

"Lies." The girl whispered.

Akira only looked at her in confusion before he sat down in his seat.

And then, the whispers started again.

"Do you think they know each other?"

"No way, do you think he hit on her before he transfered here?"

Akira rolled his eyes and slouched.

He was honestly getting tired of this.

"DUDE! That's Takamaki, he can't hit on her. She's Kamoshida's bitch, remember?"

"Jeez, Kamoshida's gonna murder him if he finds out."

"Bro, I'll be glad if Kamoshida murders him. Kurusu's a danger to our school!"

Akira bit his lip at the last comment.

So, Shujin wanted him dead.

...

Good to know.

...

Akira was walking out of the classroom when it happened. For a brief moment, the school turned into... whatever the hell they had gone through in the morning. The castle...

He stopped, wracking his head.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Kawakami asked, noticing him.

"This... This is a school, right?" Akira carefully asked his homeroom teacher.

"Yeah, of course this is a school. What else would it be?"

"_**Tell her the truth! With your charm and mine combined, we shall surely convince and seduce her!**_"

'_Arsene, I'm not gonna fucking charm and seduce my homeroom teacher._'

"_**Your call, kid. But I recomme-**_"

'_Shut up._'

"**_Very well. You are quite a snarky one indeed. Hehe, I like it._**" With that, the persona disappeared.

"Nothing. Just don't mind me." Akira said before walking away.

"Wait."

He stopped.

"It seems like people are already talking about you, but I'm.. not the one who told them. I promise." She paused before mumbling, "I can't even catch a break... Why do I have to deal with this?" The homeroom teacher groaned. "You should head straight home. Sakura-san sounded pretty angry. Oh, and about Sakamoto-kun... I'm not going to tell you not to be around him, but be careful around him, ok?"

With that, Kawakami returned to the classroom. Replacing her, a certain blond boy walked up to Akira. He simply whispered, "I'll be waiting on the roof." And walked away.

Akira shoved his hands in his pocket before heading for the roof.

...

"Sorry for botherin' ya about all this. I bet Kawakami already warned you about me, huh?" Ryuji sat in a relaxed position on the roof of Shujin.

"It's no bother. You're the only one in this school who actually thinks I'm a normal human being. Everyone else thinks I'm some yakuza boss who euthanizes animals for a living." Akira slouched, before grinning. "Maybe I should really join the Yakuza. Take lessons and whatnot on how to be bad to the bone."

This caused Ryuji to laugh.

"I heard you had a criminal record, but you seem like too much of a goody two shoes to me." The boy leaned in. "So... What happened? Why the hell did someone like you end up like this?"

Akira frowned. "Well, one day, I was walking home from school, and there was a drunk ugly bald man harassing a woman. So, I decided to step in and shoved him off her, and the fucking drunk baldo decides to be a _baka_ and falls, cutting himself on the head." He sighed. "After that, the police got involved, and I dunno why, but... The drunk man threatened the woman, and the woman... Said I was the one who assaulted her."

"What! No fucking way, man. I can't believe that. Nuh uh." His hands tightened into fists. "I can't forgive shitty adults who do things like that! Ugh!"

Akira chuckled. He was glad Ryuji had a solid moral code, if anything. "I guess I've practically gotten over it by now. I still hate that bald idiot, but I suppose I can't blame the woman. She probably had her reasons for doing what she did." Akira sighed. "I still can't believe it sometimes, though. I spent my entire life being a normal, _responsible_ person. I spent my entire life gaining my parents' respect. My teachers, my friends too." His expression turned darkened. "And as soon as my incident happened, it all went poof. My dad disowned me, I got expelled, and my friends treated me like a stranger. It kinda hurts, to be honest."

"Nah, dude. You just gotta make them eat their words! You got a few years in high school left, so all you gotta do is prove 'em wrong. It shouldn't be hard for someone like you anyways." Ryuji grinned.

Akira smiled. "Thanks. But... This isn't what we're here to discuss, isn't it...?"

Ryuji's expression darkened. "Yeah. You're damn right. What was that today? You were there too, right? And you summoned that giant man bird thing..."

"Persona."

"Huh?"

"It's... It's a persona named Arsene. Don't ask me how I know this, but I've got a really annoying, really horny dormant spirit inside of my head right now."

"_**I heard that by the way!**_"

Akira ignored the gentleman thief.

"It's... unreal, to be honest."

"Wait, so that thing is talking to you right now?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"Damn. That's kinda cool. Anyways, we need to talk about Kamoshida. There are a few rumors goin' around about how he abuses his students, but no one says shit about it since he's an olympic medalist who took the volleyball team to nationals. Anyways, I wonder if that castle had something to do wtih that... Ugh, I can't think. We can go back to that castle, yeah?"

Akira nodded.

"I wonder what happened to that cat..." Ryuji mumbled to himself.

"Morgana?"

"Yeah, Morgana. I wonder how he's doin' right now."

"Eh, he's probably doing fine. He does have a persona, so..."

"Yeah, we shouldn't worry about that. I'm gonna go now. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?" Ryuji opened the door back indoors, and Akira was left alone.

Soon, the boy decided to go back home.

It had been a long day.

**Notes**

**AAAND DONE! Damn, that was a long chapter. I don't have too much to say, except that I'm starting to finalize some of my decisions.**

**First of all, Shirou and Rin will HAVE Personas, because overwhelming majority.**

**Second, Shirou's persona will most likely be Muramasa out of Majority, and Rin's will be Ishtar, Hestia, or even Circe or Freya. However, I'm going to make them a little different than the average combat personas, and it will have to do with Shirou and Rin's magic affinities. (Shirou's element is literally "Sword" while Rin is practically a prodigy in all elements)**

**Needless to say, their fighting styles will be extremely different from the majority of the phantom thieves cast.**

**Also, here's some more food for thought. What should Shirou and Rin's personas look like aesthetically? Ik Ishtar/Freya/Circe is an actual persona in game, and Hestia's roman form Vesta is also in the demons/personas list, but Muramasa isn't as far as I know.**

**Next, should I make Shirou's metaverse costume into Archer's outfit? I think that would be badass, and his reaction would be priceless.**

**Anyways, that's about it. Thank you for reading!**


	6. Chapter 3: Forge

_**Chapter 5: Forge**_

Shirou's impression of Shujin Academy had lowered by the time school ended.

A lot of the teachers were questionable at best, in fact, Ms. Chouno had been one of the _rare_ teachers who were sufficiently qualified to work at a school. Meanwhile, the student population hadn't calmed down with the rumors either. If anything the rumors of the new transfer student had escalated by the time school was over. Shirou idly wondered what the student even looked like. He couldn't be _that_ bad, couldn't he?

Shirou wiped the thoughts from his head. Either way, Makoto was possibly only reasonable one of his entire class, if he took out Rin, who had transferred with him. He shook his head in dismay at the thought that some of his classmates came to the conclusion he was Irish from his red hair.

He didn't know how the hell anyone could come to that conclusion. Irish people didn't even have red hair as a common color. Sure, it was more common in the west than it was in a place like japan, but he still couldn't deduct how people thought he was _Irish_. Lancer would probably have thrown a fit.

But in defense of the students, at least a lot of the rumors gave him sources of entertainment. The student population certainly had a wild imagination. A _very_ wild imagination. It was a shame, really. The lot of them could have earned careers as writers and artists if they had the right push.

But unfortunately, they were mostly pricks.

'_I should probably head towards the school entrance, I don't wanna keep Rin waiting.'_

School had been over for a long time, and Shirou had simply stayed to finish his homework in his library, accidentally disregarding the fact that he lived with Rin.

Old habits really died hard.

Shirou quickly packed up his homework, less than a quarter done, before heading towards the staircase. That was when he noticed a slender black haired boy walking towards the roof.

'_Strange..._'

He recalled that this was the same boy that he had seen with Sojiro Sakura a day ago. Could it be that this was the new transfer student? Because the boy certainly didn't look like someone with a criminal record. In fact, he looked like just the opposite.

He decided to ignore it for now, making a simple mental note to keep an eye on the boy. Shuffling quickly, he jogged down the staircase, each passing moment increasing his desperation.

Because if Shirou had learnt anything from his experience with the grail war, it was _not_ to piss of Rin Tohsaka.

The slayer of Gilgamesh shuddered as he broke into a sprint.

...

"So, how was your first day of school, Emiya-kun?"

"I... suppose it was alright. Some of the teachers irked me off, and the students need to whisper quietly. Other than that, I don't have any big, pressing issues." Shirou answered. They had decided to take a short break before going home, and stopped at Leblanc cafe for a cup of coffee. Shirou made a mental note to make frequent trips to the cafe during his time in Tokyo. The barista truly made wonderful brews.

"I guess I have to say the same. Anyways, that's not the point. Do you have any leads on the case?" Rin asked. Behind the counter, Sojiro Sakura's ears perked up at the word case.

"Nope. I heard a few rumors during school, but those were all just silly talk. The Shujin students can make some wild rumors..." Shirou said with a sigh.

"I agree. It's been hard to pick up on any leads just yet. But we shouldn't be too hasty, this is only our first few days after all. For all we know, it could range from a bunch of coincidences, to an army of dead apostles." The girl chuckled.

Shirou stared at her. "You're kidding right?"

Rin Tohsaka only shrugged. "Just offering up ideas. We don't know anything about what's happening yet." She paused. "But I do have an idea." The girl took a sip from her cup of coffee. "I've planned out a basic plan of attack. First of all, we should probably ask Makoto to report information to us. She's student council president, and probably knows a lot more about the rumors and chatter around the school than we do. Next, we should probably do a little bit of snooping ourselves. There's an associate of Raiga Fujimura here in Tokyo, who used to work with him in the Yakuza. He owns an airsoft shop in central street. He might be a good source of info." She took another sip of coffee. Also, I've done a bit of research, and I've found out that these mental shutdowns might actually be results of cognitive failure."

Sojiro perked up even more.

'_Cognitive failure... Could this connect to Wakaba's research...?'_

"Apparently, I'm not sure if this is real or not, but an acquaintance of the train driver who ended up crashing, said that the driver was starting to question his life decisions, and suddenly turned into a whole different person before he crashed and died. Additionally, it was reported that he was like an empty shell of a human for days before the crash." The girl grimaced. "If this is connected to... You know, _that_, it's outside anything I've ever seen."

She sighed. "We'll be going now, Sojiro-san. Thank you for the coffee, it's been wonderful.

The two students exited Leblanc cafe, leaving a very confused, and _extremely_ suspicious Sojiro Sakura.

...

"I'm scared that Sojiro-san might catch onto us." Rin suddenly announced on the way home. Shirou looked at her curiously.

"I wouldn't worry too much. He doesn't seem like the type to get involved in other people's businesses." He stated bluntly. However, Rin only scowled.

"I know, that's why I talked about the case in Leblanc..."

Shirou perked up. "Huh? Then why are you worried ab-"

"Emiya-kun, didn't you notice how he perked up when I said cognitive failure? Somehow, I struck a sensitive part in him."

"Do... you think he knows something?"

Rin paused.

"Frankly, I'm not sure I even want to know anymore."

"But right now, we don't have any leads! What if this could be our chance!" Shirou complained.

Rin pondered for a brief moment. "I suppose we could ask him later. But right now, we shouldn't barge into his business too much."

...

Shirou walked along the hallway for school. It was lunchtime, and he had agreed with Tohsaka to simply walk around and listen for rumors. It was then when he accidentally slammed into someone. Shirou felt a sharp force on his left side as he tripped and fell towards the ground. His quick reflexes saved the boy as he instantly got into a position where his hands and arms would steady his fall. As soon as he hit the ground, the boy let out a groan before he steadied himself back up to see what had hit him.

The thing that had hit him turned out to be a person.

It was a girl with black hair, tied into a ponytail. However, her strangest feature was that she had multiple bruises lining her arms and legs, and a large piece of cloth wrapped around the area of her left knee. It was probably just a bad injury, but Shirou wondered how an injury would cause bruises in so many places at once.

He kept the information in the back of his head as he lent a hand towards her fallen form. The girl looked in his direction and her expression morphed into a curious one, before she took his hand and got up, wobbling slightly in the process.

"I've never seen you around this school. Are you new here?" The girl asked. Shirou put on a sheepish smile.

"Yeah, I transfered here a while ago. My name's Emiya Shirou, I'm a third year here."

"Oh! That makes you my senpai then." The girl giggled. "My name's Suzui Shiho. Thank you for helping me up."

"If you don't mind me asking... How did you get all those bruises?" Shirou abruptly asked. He didn't want to intrude on the girl's personal life, but the way her bruises were scattered were extremely unnatural. It was almost as if she had fallen down on 25 different areas of her body.

It just didn't add up.

"Oh! Um... They're nothing. Just silly accidents..."

Shirou didn't believe her. But not wishing to intrude on her privacy, he simply left it at that. He gave Shiho a nod before waving at her and resuming his task of listening for rumors.

"Emiya-san?" He heard a voice behind him. It was Shiho again. "Thank you for your concern." The girl giggled before walking away from the red haired magus.

Shirou scratched his head, fumbling with his thoughts.

Something was off about Suzui Shiho. And Shirou would make sure he found out what it was.

...

"Find anything?"

Shirou sighed. "No." He replied with a sullen expression. "I think we would be better off not searching for student rumors. Maybe we could do some actual interviews out in the street. All the students here are saying is a load of bullshit for the most part."

Rin scowled in response. "I hate to admit it, but maybe you're right. We have an entire year to do this investigation, but we're going nowhere just by looking for student rumors. This isn't gonna work. We have to up our game." She paused. "But I don't know how. At least, not yet." She ruffled her hair in annoyance. "Argh, this is annoying! We don't have a lead, hell, we don't have anything that even _leads_ to a lead. We don't even know much about the case itself?"

She slouched in despair. "We should be patient. Tomorrow, we can see the man I told you about. The associate of Taiga's grandfather. Apparently his name is Iwai. But if he doesn't have any info, we're totally lost..."

Shirou perked up. "Also, this doesn't have much to do with the actual case, but I found something interesting today. You know the second year, Suzui Shiho?"

Rin looked at him curiously. "Yeah, she's the one with the ponytail black hair, right?" Shirou nodded.

"I accidentally bumped into her today, and I noticed something out of the ordinary. She has a ton of bruises on her body, and a really bad knee injury. But those bruises were scattered in the weirdest way possible. Like someone slammed her with a hammer in 20 different places..."

Rin's eyes widened at that. "Now that I think about it, a ton of other kids are that way too! I thought it was weird that so people had bandages on their faces... It isn't just Suzui-chan. There are dozens of students in Shujin with wounds like that..." She paused. "This might actually lead to something. It probably doesn't have to do anything with the mental shutdowns, but let's investigate it anyways." She scoffed. "It isn't like we'll find anything better to do anyways..."

Shirou quickly agreed. "I think you might be getting somewhere with that."

"Tomorrow, we should ask around people with bruises, on how they got them. Did you ask Suzui-chan by any chance?"

"Yeah, she said they were silly accidents, but anyone would see past a lie like that..."

"Huh. I'll keep that in mind tomorrow." Rin said before relaxing on the couch. "I think... We should finish for today. Good night, Emiya-kun." She said before going back to her room.

"Night." Shirou waved at his girlfriend before finding the doorknob and entering his own room. He gently slid himself into his futon.

That night, he dreamed of a hill of swords.

...

Asking the students with bruises had turned out to be complete, utter flop. Every single person Shirou interviewed came up with varying answers and excuses for how they got hurt. However, there was one thing that Shirou _did_ derive from all the interviews.

All the bruised students were part of the volleyball team. '_I may be onto something.'_

Shirou still had a few minutes left of lunchtime, so he tried to find Rin among the dozens of students in Shujin. Eventually, he found her 5 minutes before class, among a horde of students in the first floor.

"Emiya-kun?" She asked. Shirou, in response, gestured for her to come his direction.

"I did some looking around, and everyone who has the strange injuries is part of the volleyball team. They wouldn't tell me anything, though."

"That is strange indeed. Who was the Shujin volleyball coach again?"

Shirou paused. "Kamoshida sensei. It was Kamoshida sensei."

"Didn't you say you had a bad feeling about him?"

"I did, but for now, let's just keep an eye on him. We might be onto something here."

Rin nodded, and ended the conversation. Things were starting to unveil very quickly.

* * *

**The Next Day**

**POV: Akira**

* * *

It had been a day since they had gotten out of the palace, and Akira found himself inside it again.

Thank you, Ryuji.

After finding out that an app on his phone was what let him into that world Ryuji was absolutely insistent on entering it again, despite the fact that the two boys were nearly killed by a half naked Kamoshida in a heart patterned bathrobe the last time they went into what Akira called 'Pedophile Wonderland'

Phenomenal.

Akira pressed the familiar app on his phone, and experienced a strange sensation as his surroundings shifted and changed into the Palace he knew all too well. In a glance, he found that his clothes had transformed into the the black costume that had appeared onto his body after he had first summoned Arsene. Black Trenchcoat, black clothing, slick boots and red gloves, complete with a domino mask that looked like it was created for the purpose of a masquerade. It also happened to be extremely thick and hot, since Kamoshida's palace wasn't exactly a ski resort.

In it's defense however, at least it was stylish.

**_"Of course it's stylish! I designed it myself!"_**

'_Thank you Arsene, I'll give you a star sticker later._'

"Yo, you got that outfit on you again!" Ryuji exclaimed. Akira nodded in response.

"Alright, let's check this place out again! There was something that was stuck in my mind since last ti- WOAH!"

Ryuji yelled as Morgana landed _onto_ his face.

"Shush, idiots! You're making a commotion! The shadows are gonna hear you!" Morgana jumped off the dyed blonde's face back onto the ground.

"Argh, stupid ca-" Before he could finish that statement, Morgana had a deadly looking cutlass aimed at Ryuji's critical area.

"I dare you to finish that sentence." The cat had a victorious smirk on his face.

No, not a cat. Akira would do well to remember that.

"Jesus, you are one hell of a... Thing. Anyways, what even is this place! Is it the school?"

"That's right."

"But it's a castle." Akira interrupted.

"You need to let me finish. This castle is how the castle's ruler views the school. It's the place of all of his distorted desires. You called him Kamoshida, right?"

"Yup."

"In that case, it's how Kamoshida's distorted heart views the school. For him, it's a castle, where he's the king."

Ryuji snapped. "Damn it, tell it in a way so we can understand it!"

Morgana scoffed. "Hmph. I wouldn't have expected a moron to get it."

Ouchie.

"Whaddya say?" Ryuji's voice was becoming much more agitated. But before Morgana could snap back, a loud noise echoed through the area. Ryuji took a single step back in surprise.

"What the hell was that?"

"It must be the slaves captive here."

"For real?" The noise sounded again. "Oh shit, it's for real!"

Akira bit his lip, trying not to snicker. The timing had been way too convenient.

"Yo, Morgana! You know where Kamoshida's slaves are?"

"Of course I do! I know half the castle by heart!" Morgana replied with a smirk.

The cat was truly an interesting character.

"C'mon, lead us there, then! We gotta go to them!" Ryuji exclaimed urgently. "Yo Akira, you're all for this too, right?"

Akira held his hand up defensively. "Hey, don't ask me. You're the one who asked me to follow you here. You do what you want. I'm only here in case you get your ass kicked."

Ryuji scowled. "Dammit, now I feel inferior. Anyways, that's not the point! Let's go to where the slaves are kept!" His enthusiasm returned once more.

"Follow me!" Morgana yelled.

'_Ironic that this cat was telling us to be quiet a moment ago._' Akira mused with an amused expression, before slapping his forehead. '_Right. Not a cat._'

In his defense, he didn't want a demonic cat monster thing with a sword to cut off his balls.

...

If Akira was in the mood for jokes, the mood instantly disappeared as soon as he reached the dungeons. It turned out, Suguru Kamoshida was not only a grade A asshole and a pervert, he also took pleasure in what seemed like torturing his students. In other words, he was quite a sadist.

Every prison cell was filled with the boys and girls wearing the Shujin Volleyball uniform, performing activities that mirrored varying degrees of torture, ranging from the normal, historic ones, to running on a 10 meter wide treadmill with fear of instant death by getting rolled over by a giant spiky log.

Well, at least he was creative.

"C'mon! We gotta free these guys!" Ryuji's voice alerted Akira out of his train of thought.

"No! You idiot! Did you actually think these guys were real people!"

"They sure as hell _look_ like real people to me!"

"Yeah, and I look like a demonic _Cat_!"

"You sure you _aren't _one?"

Morgana whined. "How many times do I have to go through this! I am _not_ a cat! Also, if you had any sense of intelligence whatsoever, you would know that the slaves here are only part of Kamoshida's cognition!"

"What the hell is that s'posed to mean!"

"UGH! It means that this is only part of Kamoshida's imagination! They're only part of his distorted desires!"

"Wait, so... These guys aren't real?"

"What have I been trying to tell you for the last-" Morgana sighed. "Forget it. If we don't stop this now, the noise is gonna attract shadows."

Akira watched the argument unfold with a bemused smirk. His two companions were already like an old married couple.

**_"Well aren't they quite the pair."_**

How lovely.

"Ok, forget it then! I'm still gonna memorize all the faces here so I can ask them at school!"

"I'll help out." Akira volunteered. They then scouted the prison cells, looking at every single torture device and student. After a good long while, Ryuji was finally satisfied.

"Alright, that should be it!"

"Are you done? If you are, we should go now. You wanna stay here for as short as possible. I'll lead the way to the exit!" Morgana ordered before nimbly running towards the nearby hallway.

Akira and Ryuji took off into a sprint to catch up with Morgana as he navigated through the castle with relative ease. Quickly, they reached a rather large door, that Akira pushed open.

Instantly, he stepped back. Standing directly in front of him was Suguru Kamoshida himself, bathrobe and all. Conveniently, he also happened to be surrounded by at least half a dozen large shadows.

'_Shit._'

Akira wasted no time whatsoever. "Arsene! EIHA!" Akira yelled, summoning the gentleman thief as he stepped back to avoid getting skewered by a shadow. For a brief moment, the red clad persona charged his power, before the shadow was consumed, and very nearly killed by a pillar of black and red death. Akira swiftly prompted to finish it off with his dagger.

It was then when he felt a hand grasp him. The black haired boy was swiftly flung against the wall, causing his head to erupt with a sharp pain.

When he regained his consciousness fully, he found himself surrounded by 3 very sharp spears. He looked towards Morgana and found that his companion was also similarly stuck in a sticky situation. Ryuji was possibly the worst off, with Kamoshida himself kicking him and beating him to a pulp. _With_ the spears aimed at him. Akira quickly tried to devise a plan, a distraction, _anything_ so that they could get out of this mess, but found his head empty. Sharp weapons were turned on him, and he couldn't summon Arsene, because that would get him skewered.

'_Is this the end?_' Akira bit his lip. Morgana was helpless, Ryuji was on the ground, and he couldn't even move, as that would turn him into instant Shadow Chow. It would practically take a miracle to save them.

"Hehe, you petty thieves have NOTHING on me! I am the king of this castle, the KING! And no one defies me. Especially worthless scum like you, Sakamoto." Kamoshida's smile was victorious.

"Fuck... You..." Ryuji whimpered out.

"It's because of whatever ideas you had, that you ended up like this. You caused your own demise." Kamoshida paused. "How dare you go against me, tsk tsk. Even though it was a while back, Sakamoto, did you completely forget the favor I did you back in the sports club?"

"That's not true! That wasn't-"

_Kick._

"It's not-"

_Kick._

Akira forced his eyes away from the sight of his helpless friend, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"You're such a pain, Sakamoto. You thought you could take the spotlight away from me? The only achievements in this school are _mine_! Because _I_ am the king, do you understand?"

_Kick._

"Breaking your spirit, breaking your leg, it was all so easy! The school? Pfft, the school, the principal, no one can do _shit_ to me. I am the only king around here! First, these two are gonna die, and then I'll move on to you, you worthless mongrel!"

Akira felt his arms being restrained by heavy feet. "Get up!" He yelled, and bit his lip soon after as a sharp pain erupted from his chest, the guard's foot hitting it. "Get up and fight him!" This time, he yelled more desperately, and another foot connected with his face, making him yelp in pain. "DO YOU REALLY WANNA DIE LIKE THIS? TO A BASTARD LIKE HIM?!"

Ryuji remained still. "You're... Right. He took my legs from me, and I probably won't ever get them back again... I can't lose like this."

Kamoshida burst into laughter. "I dare you to try, you filthy piece of garbage. You can't even save yourself, much less others. You failed your track team, you'll fail them too."

"You're the filthy piece of garbage here, Kamoshida." Ryuji slowly got up from the ground.

"Oh- ho? Getting rebellious here, are we?" Kamoshida's eyes widened comically and looked at Ryuji with a challenging smirk.

"Don't look at me like that, you filthy piece of shit! You use people all you want just to satisfy your own stupid needs! I ain't gonna just stand there when I know what you've done!"

That was when Akira heard a familiar and yet unfamiliar voice echo through the room.

_**"You made me wait for quite a while."**_

Ryuji's pupils turned yellow as he grasped his head in pain. "A- Argh!"

**_"You seek power, correct? Then let us form a pact. Since your name has been disgraced already, why not hoist the flag and wreak havoc?"_**

Akira blinked in confusion and almost asked, "Arsene?"

The gentleman thief responded back in his _**"Do not worry child, for I reside in you, just as always. It seems that your friend is awakening his own power."**_

_**"The other you within desires it thus..."**_

Ryuji was practically rolling on the ground, gasping in pain.

_**"I AM THOU, THOU ART I...**_

_**THERE IS NO TURNING BACK...**_

_**THE SKULL OF REBELLION IS YOUR FLAG HENCEFORTH!"**_

A skull shaped mask appeared on Ryuji's face, and Akira winced as he tore it off and started to bleed.

But when the wind came, the boy found himself grinning.

Among a giant blue pillar, a Ryuji with a black suit stood, smirking mischievously.

"Right on... Wassup, Persona!" Akira found himself snickering at the blonde's extremely casual... Awakening.

"This effin rocks!" Now that I got this power, it's time for payback..." The blue pillar disappeared to reveal a humongous Pirate standing on a giant floating boat.

_'Arsene, why don't **you** have a boat?_' Akira asked, smirking.

_**"Gah! Boats are overrated."**_

Akira stood up quickly, all of the guards blown off by the burst of wind.

"Alright! Let's do this!" Ryuji yelled. "Pillage them, CAPTAIN KIDD!"

...

"ARSENE! CLEAVE!" Akira yelled as a giant slice mark appeared over a nearby shadow. He quickly hopped onto the shadow itself with a jump and drove his dagger into its neck, effectively making it dissolve. When he looked sideways, he saw that Ryuji was decimating the shadows with rounds of electricity, and Morgana was sweeping them away with wind.

"Oh, you guys are screwed!" Ryuji yelled with glee, and Akira couldn't help but agree.

Akira checked his furry friend once more and his breath stopped, as a shadow was just in striking range, behind the creature. "EIHA!" A pillar of death instantly rose from the ground, seemingly out of nowhere, and swallowed the shadow into what was hopefully oblivion.

Among the shadows, the 3 persona users were a massive wave of destruction.

Akira finished off the final one with a slash from his knife.

"Dammit, Kamoshida's gone!" Ryuji yelled in anger before he suddenly collapsed the ground. "Damn, I'm beat. Wanna go back for today? I could really use a bowl of ramen 'bout now."

Akira nodded. He was also extremely tired.

"Well, let's go back to the entrance. Wanna join me for some ramen later?" Ryuji offered.

Akira's stomach answered that question for him.

...

* * *

**Omake: Gilgamesh**

* * *

Shirou wanted to fucking die.

Of _all_ the possible persona thingys that he could have gotten, he had to get this one. He could have gotten some hero, or a blacksmith, hell, he would even take _Archer_.

But out of every fucking possible persona, why did he have to get stuck with _him_?

_**"I CAN HEAR YOU, STUPID MONGREL"**_

Gilgamesh was an asshole and an egotistical pervert to boot.

_**"A COUNTERFEITING BASTARD LIKE YOU DOESN'T DESERVE TO WIELD ME. IF NOT FOR THE FACT THAT YOU COMMAND ME, I WOULD END YOUR LIFE IN AN INSTANT!"**_

_'Whatever you say, Gilgamesh...'_

**_"RELEASE ME THIS INSTANT!"_**

_'One problem with that: I can't.'_

**_"YES YOU CAN! RELEASE ME NOW! I REFUSE, I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO WORK ALONGSIDE, AND EVEN BREATHE THE SAME AIR AS A FAKING PEASANT LIKE YOU!"_**

_'Gilly, if you don't stop yelling at me right now, I'm gonna cut off your arm again.'_

**_"SHUT UP, FOOL! YOU ARE BELOW ME! YOU SHOULD BE-"_**

_'Do me a favor and fuck off, will you?' _Shirou was getting more and more irritated by the heroic spirit turned Persona.

**_"WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE YOU OF ALL PEOPLE! WHY COULDN'T HAVE IT BEEN..."_**

_'Huh? Gilly, are you saying that you would have preferred someone else over little old me?'_

**_"DON'T CALL ME GILLY, YOU UNWORTHY-"_**

_'Mongrel?'_

**_"YES! YOU STUPID MONGREL!"_**

_'Anyways Gilly, you need to answer my question. Who would you rather work for?'_

**_"YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY RIGHT TO POSSESS THAT INFORMATION!"_**

_'Whatever you say, Gilly. Whatever you say. Hmm, maybe..._'

Shirou's lips curved into a coy smile as he yelled, "PERSONA!"

Soon, the king of heroes appeared before his eyes.

"Hey, Gilgamesh!"

The persona glared at him in response. Shirou smiled mischievously.

"Do the chicken dance." Shirou put all of his mental willpower into that single statement. And soon, Gilgamesh was prancing around Shirou's apartment like a fool, swinging his arms up and down.

_**"WHA- WHAT IS THIS SORCERY! I DEMAND YOU TO STOP THIS AT ONCE!"**_

Shirou ignored the king, and instead took out his phone, and started to record the footage. This was _excellent_ blackmail material. Almost good enough to excuse for having Gilgamesh in his head 24/7.

**_"DON'T RECORD ME, YOU MONGREL! STOP AT ONCE! CEASE! CEASE!"_**

Oh man, this was too fun.

Shirou let out a coy smile, tapping his phone. "Hmm, who should I send this to? Tohsaka, or Sakura maybe? Hmm, I heard Saber got a smartphone recently too. Ooh ooh! I should send it to Shinji! Or Zelretch!"

_**"FUCK OFF!" **_Gilgamesh exploded.

Shirou grinned evilly. His ideals would typically forbid him from using this kind of blackmail...

But in a way, he was only blackmailing himself. _Technically._

Shirou tapped the send button, snickering.

Sometimes, he just had to bend the rules after all.

* * *

**Notes**

* * *

**Welp, that's it for this chapter. Shirou and Rin alert good ol' Sojiro by being careless around a cafe with no visitors, and Ryuji awakens his persona. Please leave behind criticisms, or improvement ideas, or any ideas in your reviews! It means the world to me, and it's what pushes me to keep writing.**

**So, thank you for reading my story till now, and leave behind a review! Thank you!**


	7. Chapter 4: Forwards

I don't own anything

* * *

_**Chapter 6**_

_**POV: Shirou**_

* * *

_Sunday_

It was Sunday morning, and Shirou found himself walking with Rin along central street. The street was a rather colorful, crowded place to shop and eat, and Shirou found himself loving it and hating it at the same time. In one hand, the variety of items made Central street rather interesting, and on the other hand... Shirou wasn't exactly a fan of crowds.

_The same could be said for the entire city of Tokyo __itself_. Shirou mused. He recoiled when he briefly recalled his experience in the subway. The brief, yet extremely uncomfortable ride had nearly given him claustrophobia.

"Emiya-kun? I think we're here." Rin noted as the two mages stopped in front of a rather bleakly colored store with an assault rifle on display.

_An assault rifle_?

Shirou knew that the person they would be meeting would be an ex-Yakuza, yet he didn't quite expect the man to be owning... An _airsoft_ store.

"Are you sure this is the shop, Rin?" Shirou asked, just for a final confirmation.

"Yes Emiya-kun, I was told that he owned an Airsoft store. But what are all these firearms doing here?"

Shirou slapped his forehead.

"Tohsaka?"

"Yes, Emiya-kun?"

"You need to get out more."

Rin merely cocked her head in confusion as Shirou opened the door to the shop.

The door swung open with a slight rusted creak, and then-

Rin's hand instantly shot upwards, and Shirou looked at her, his eyes slightly widening.

"Emiya-kun, be on alert." Shirou opened his mouth to ask why, before he recognized it too.

There was a bounded field around the airsoft store.

A very crudely made bounded field. Most likely by a third rate magus such as him.

Narrowing his eyes, Shirou readied his circuits to trace the marred blades, Kanshou and Bakuya. Next, he reinforced his body halfway, to prepare for a threat.

Then, he swung open the door in full.

The airsoft shop wasn't exactly a treat to look at. There were guns hung up for display, plastic bullets in the counter, and a man with a grey jacket and a grey cap.

Shirou paused. Munehisa Iwai was not what he expected a magus to look like. Nevertheless, he stepped forwards with caution.

Iwai didn't even make eye contact with them as he nonchalantly said, "What can I do for-"

And then he stopped.

The man instantly swung over to their direction, a pistol in hand. His eyes, previously cool and indifferent, were now filled with tension and... Fear?

"You two... You're magi." Iwai quickly aimed the gun directly at Shirou's face. "What the fuck do you want with me?"

At that moment, multiple things happened at once.

Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in Shirou's hands, Iwai fired a bullet, which Shirou easily deflected, and Rin fired a shot of _Gandr_, making the gun in Iwai's hand explode.

Iwai went wide eyed in shock, before he finally raised both of his hands in defeat.

"Jesus fucking christ, let's try not to destroy the shop." He finally relented. "Why are you two here? I ain't done anything relatin' to magecraft in years, so why now?"

"Then what was that bounded field?"

"An extra precaution I set up a long time ago."

Rin finally sighed.

"Shirou, I think... This man is safe. Still, don't let down your guard."

Iwai sighed deeply. "Thank you, now what do you want? 'Cause I don't think you came here to buy airsoft guns."

This time, Shirou did the talking.

"We need to ask you a few questions."

...

"Wait, so you two are Magi, and you came to Tokyo... to investigate _crime_?" Iwai confirmed.

"Yes. Additionally, there was a chance that a forbidden, or hidden branch of magecraft could be involved in these mental shutdown cases. We hope to find out how this is being done, to prevent the knowledge from being used again in such a manner."

The airsoft shop owner leaned back against his chair. "So... Why me? I'm a crappy magus, and a questionable person to the general public. So why did you two come for me out of all people?" He paused. "Unless you think I'm the one doing all of this."

"Well, you used to work under Fujimura Raiga during your time with the Yakuza, am I correct?"

Iwai's eyes widened. "How'd you know that?"

This time, Shirou answered. "Fujimura-san is... The grandfather of my surrogate sister, and he told us to seek you out. We were hoping you would know your way around the deeper, criminal parts of Tokyo, since you're part of Yakuza."

Iwai blinked. "So you didn't even know I was a magus?" Shirou nodded. "Well, shit. Sorry to break it to you kid, but I don't know anything about the mental shutdown stuff. I dropped outta Yakuza ages ago, I'm a crappy magus, and I'm leading... Well, the closest I can get to a normal life."

After a pause, Shirou finally nodded and stood up. "Thank you, Iwai-san. Please, if you get any new information, contact us." Shirou scribbled down his cellphone number on a small note and put it down on the table, before walking towards the exit with Rin.

When he was at the door, Iwai interrupted him. "What was that by the way? That thing you did with the swords. My bullet should have shattered Gradation air easily."

Shirou merely replied, "Trade secret, Iwai-san." before exiting the shop.

Meanwhile, Munehisa Iwai picked up the small note of paper that Shirou had left.

"Shirou... Emiya?" He pocketed the note, and returned to the counter.

"I swear... I've heard the name Emiya somewhere before..." Iwai paused.

"Eh, it's probably nothing."

* * *

_The Next Day_

* * *

"Tohsaka! I made breakfast!"

No response.

"Tohsaka?"

Silence.

"...Rin?"

Shirou walked over to the door to Rin's room and quietly opened it. His partner was currently on the floor, blissfully sleeping after rolling off of the bed. Shirou sighed as he went over to her sleeping form to gently nudge her awake.

"Tohsaka, we have to attend school. You need to wake up."

The girl gave no response whatsoever. Shirou bit his lip, trying to formulate an idea on how to wake her. Eventually, his head formed an idea. A very _dangerous_ idea.

"Tohsaka, someone broke into the house last night. He took all of your gems." Shirou stated carefully.

...

...

...

Blue eyes snapped open.

"WHAT!?"

...

"Jeez Emiya-kun, that was a low blow. I didn't know you would resort to dirty tricks like that..."

Shirou merely shrugged. "We should keep an eye on Kamoshida sensei today."

"The volleyball coach, right?"

"Yeah. It probably has nothing to do with the cases, but it's still concerning."

Rin sighed. "You're right. As much as I want to spend more time looking over the mental shutdowns, we're out of leads for now. I'll look around too for clues."

Shirou finished his breakfast and stood up to get ready for school.

"Today's the volleyball rally. We might get some leads there."

"Shirou?"

"Yes?"

"...I need more coffee."

Shirou smiled in response as he walked towards the kitchen once more.

...

_Later that day_

Shirou cringed as Kamoshida's spike rammed its way into a volleyball boy's face. The volleyball rally was a strange event. Instead of pitting the teams of the school against each other like a traditional rally, it made it so that the students were facing Coach Kamoshida and his friends. Obviously, the latter team was demolishing them.

Shirou idly watched from the stands as Kamoshida once again spiked a ball into a boy's face.

_Was he doing that intentionally?_

Shirou bit his lip. He couldn't understand how people were cheering so hard, when their classmates were getting injured right in front of them.

"Kamoshida's the best!"

"He's the coolest teacher ever!"

Shirou took the time to glance at Rin, who simply had a thoughtful, concerned look on her face.

The whistle blew to signal the end of the match, and the boys team wearily went back to the benches. Meanwhile, Kamoshida gave a wide grin and high fived all of his friends. Shirou cringed at the sight. _What kind of teacher bruises his students and then celebrates like that?_

It disgusted him.

"Next match!"

For the next round, the girl's team entered the volleyball pitch.

_Suzui-san._

Indeed, Suzui Shiho stood in the spiking position of the girl's team. Shirou narrowed his eyes to see how the match would go.

The girl's team did much better than the boys. _Some_ of Kamoshida's spikes were actually blocked, and the team even made a few spikes, mostly from Shiho. They consistently scored, and by the end of the game, their score was at least half of Kamoshida's team. It was much better compared to the boys team, who barely scored 2 points.

And yet, Shirou felt he was missing something. Something was _wrong_ about that match. He narrowed his eyes in confusion, trying to figure out the hidden detail.

Then, his eyes widened in realization.

_The team was holding back._

He had seen Shiho make stupid mistakes and miss perfect spike opportunities, and lots of girls would miss balls right in front of them, while easily receiving much harder spikes and throws.

Shirou gritted his teeth.

_Why? What the hell are they afraid of?_

He didn't need to think for a second before his head answered that question for him.

...

Shirou walked out of the hallway after the rally, sighing. The match had been... Informative, and yet it frustrated him to the core that Kamoshida was willing to bruise his students. It was a disgusting thing to do, especially as a teacher.

Shirou turned a corner, and then stopped, hiding behind a corner and simply peeking slightly.

In the empty hallway, Rin and Coach Kamoshida were together conversing quietly. Shirou reinforced his ears slightly to hear them better.

"Sensei, I don't understand why you need my phone number."

"It's a matter of safety. I see you hanging around with the wrong type of crowd."

"And what does this have to do with anything?"

"Because I can tell that you should be around better people. You're different from the people there. Hanging with them is unsafe for you."

"And why do I have to give you my number?"

"So you can contact me when you need some help."

Shirou could almost _hear_ Rin smirk.

"I think I can handle myself, sensei. Thank you for the concern, however."

"If you need any help, you can come to me. My offer still stands."

"Thank you, sensei."

Shirou turned off his reinforcement, and walked forwards, only to bump into a rather aggravated looking Kamoshida.

He smiled and raised his hand in greeting. "Hello, sensei. Good job on the match today."

Kamoshida simply waved his hand in response, not saying a word as he passed the red haired magus. Shirou bit back a small laugh. The teacher practically wore his emotions on his sleeve.

_It's way too obvious that he's frustrated._

With that note, Shirou resumed walking forwards.

...

_End of School_

Shirou tapped a few buttons on his phone, soon greeted by a screen that said, _Calling Tohsaka Rin_.

Hopefully, she wouldn't screw up this time. He had spent 10 minutes telling her how to answer a call, and it had been the longest 10 minutes in his entire life.

_**Flashback**_

* * *

_"This button, Emiya-kun?"_

_"Yes! I mean, no! The green one, Tohsaka!"_

_"Shirou! This isn't working!"_

_"Tohsaka, you have to swipe it!"_

_"Emiya-kun, are you sure you know how-"  
_

_"SWIPE IT LEFT!"_

* * *

_**Flashback End**_

When a familiar voice echoed in his ears, he relaxed once more.

"Yes, Emiya-kun?"

"Yeah, Tohsaka? I might come home a bit late today. I have some business to take care of regarding Kamoshida."

Rin was quick to answer. "Okay, do what you need to. I'll see you later."

Shirou smiled. Despite the strange relationship he had with his girlfriend, they had a fair amount of trust together. _Maybe having to put your life in the hands of someone else does that._

Now, onto the actual business.

Shirou pocketed his phone, his expression becoming much more solemn as he looked at the girl on the hallway floor, curled up into a ball.

"Suzui-san, please tell me..." The red headed magus said.

"What did Kamoshida do to you?"

...

For the first time in ages, Shirou found himself at a fast food restaurant. He had always avoided going to places like Big Bang Burger since he thought fast food was both unhealthy and disgusting to eat. And yet, he found himself unable to complain about Suzui Shiho's 'private location to talk' given the current circumstances.

Shirou decided to choose his first words carefully. "So... Suzui-san, do you like to come here?"

The girl simply nodded her head, keeping silent. The tears were long gone, but she still had a heavy frown on her face.

Shirou sighed.

"Please, Suzui-san. Tell me what Kamoshida did."

Silence.

"I only wish to help."

Silence.

"...Please?"

Finally, the girl reacted to his questions, but instead of answering the question, she simply rapidly shook her head. Softly, she let out a tiny, "Sorry." The sound of her voice was so small that even Shirou, with his near-superhuman hearing, struggle to make out what she said.

Shirou dipped his head down.

"Suzui-san, why did you bring me here?" The girl simply shrugged her shoulders in response, her expression painfully empty.

Shirou bit his lip. "Suzui-san, please. I only wish to help you with your situation, and I cannot do that with your assistance."

This time, the girl abruptly stood up, and quickly marched out of the restaurant, the bangs of her hair covering her eyes.

Shirou could only follow.

The red haired magus jogged out of Big Bang Burger, only stopping to tip the store clerk as an apology for not buying anything. The man looked at him in surprise as Shirou jogged out of the door of the fast food restaurant.

"Suzui-san!" Shirou called out. He quickened his pace to catch up to the black haired girl as she walked quickly into an alleyway, twisting corner after corner until she reached a dead end.

Shirou looked at her in surprise. He had no idea what the girl was up to, and what her intentions exactly were.

He stood in silence for a good moment, almost having a staring contest with his underclassmen.

Then, abruptly, Shiho Suzui started to angrily stomp on the ground, flailing her arms around like a an angry Hercules, and screaming in anger. Shirou stepped back in surprise, barely missing a hit from her flailing right arm.

When it was done, the girl simply went into a curled up ball position, and started to sniffle.

Shirou could only watch as all of this transpired, confused at the chain of events.

"_Stupid, perverted, idiot!"_

Shirou narrowed his eyes.

_"Arrgh! Stupid fucking pervert!"_

Shirou decided to sit down in the alleyway.

"Suzui-san?"

The girl finally looked up into his eyes, her eyes moist with tears.

Finally, she answered.

"_Kamoshida... He took it away from me._"

It took a minute for Shirou to realize what she was implying.

When he finally did, it took all of his will not to yell out in anger himself.

...

"Tohsaka? Are you there?" Shirou knocked on the apartment door.

"Emiya-kun? I didn't expect you to be out till so late." The girl looked rather concerned.

Shirou strolled up to the door with a heavy expression.

"Rin." The Tohsaka heir looked at him with wide eyes. He would never call her Rin, it had always been Tohsaka, or something of the sort.

"Shirou? Did something happen?"

Shirou bit his lip. "I... May need to put the mental shutdown case on hold for a while."

"Huh? Shirou, what happened today?"

He looked at her in the eyes, blue eyes meeting gold.

"Rin, strategy has always been your forte... So, what can we do to bring down Suguru Kamoshida?"

...

* * *

The Next Day

* * *

In the morning, Shirou fixed a faulty air conditioner.

The excercise almost filled him with nostalgia, and it would have practically given him the illusion of being back in Homurahara.

_Compared to this place, Homurahara was a heaven._

To break the illusion of being back in his old school however, was a certain _baka_ of a teacher standing next to him.

Funny, how knowledge of a person's real self scorned someone's image so badly.

Shirou closed the case of the machine hard, making a sharp snapping noise.

"I have fixed it, sensei. Now, if you will excuse me, I must attend class." Shirou bit his lip as he bowed at the school's volleyball coach, giving a short nod as he turned towards the door.

He was abruptly interrupted by a strong hand to his shoulder.

"Stop right there. You and I need to talk for a second."

Shirou turned towards the coach, doing his best not to glare.

"What is it, sensei?"

"I dunno why you have a grudge against me kid, but whatever it is you wanna do... You better forget it." Kamoshida smirked. "I'm the god damn King of the school, ya hear me?"

Shirou didn't respond.

Suddenly, Kamoshida stepped back, almost tripping on himself on the way, looking at him with a mixture of nervousness and... Fear?

Shirou blinked.

The volleyball coach quickly regained his composure, and said, "Well then, go on kid. Get to class."

Shirou cocked his head in confusion before finally exiting the room.

_What the hell just happened...?_

...

* * *

**POV: Kamoshida**

* * *

Suguru Kamoshida blinked in both confusion and fear, as soon as the boy, the _Emiya_ boy, exited the room.

_What the hell was that?_ Kamoshida pondered. As a national athlete and a sports player, he was never one to take drugs.

And yet, he had just seen something that wasn't possible. _Shouldn't_ have been possible.

The only possible explanation was that Emiya was some sort of wizard in hiding, or he was on fucking heroin.

Because when he had stared into Shirou Emiya's eyes... For a brief moment, they had _changed_ colors.

One moment, Suguru Kamoshida was looking at amber gold, with a certain, warm yet ferocious aura.

And then, all of a sudden, he was gazing at cold, shining steel.

* * *

**POV: Shirou**

* * *

_What to do with Kamoshida..._

Shirou scratched his head in thought as he walked towards his homeroom class.

What had made the teacher step back with a look like that? Shirou wasn't exactly the most intimidating person in Shujin.

Either way, that was a problem for later. The issue at hand was how Shirou would expose him.

Of course, he could rig a recording device in Kamoshida's office... But there was the issue of keeping it hidden from the coach.

Shirou's shoulder bumped into something.

No, _someone._

Snapped out of his thoughts by the impact, Shirou turned around to look at what he had hit. Or more so, _who_ he had hit.

The person in question was a frizzy haired boy with pale skin and glasses. He was tall and lanky, wearing a Shujin Academy unifrom that perhaps fit _too_ well on him.

Shirou could recognize the figure as Akira Kurusu, the apparently murderous criminal who had slaughtered an entire neighbourhood.

Certainly, he truly didn't look the part.

Shirou quickly bowed and apologized and went on his way to class, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

_How many times is this gonna happen today?_

Shirou turned around to face the boy, who had a surprisingly solemn expression on his face.

He cocked his head in curiosity as the boy opened his mouth to speak.

"I saw how you tried to talk to Suzui-san yesterday."

_He followed us?_ Shirou calmed himself down as he realized that he had indeed spent a few minutes at school trying to convince Shiho Suzui to tell him the truth about her situation.

_Ah, so he witnessed the scene? _

The boy continued. "It was a very admirable thing you did. Thank you."

Shirou simply nodded as the boy offered him a handshake. Hesitantly, he raised his hand and shook it.

_What's he trying to do?_

Shirou released his hand and turned towards his homeroom class, only to stop at an unfamiliar feeling.

Something was in his hand.

Carefully, Shirou unfolded his fingers, only to find a sheet of paper in his palm with a note scribbled in it.

_If you want to take down Kamoshida, meet me on the roof today._

_\- Lots of love, Aaaaaah kira Kurusu_

Shirou read through the note one more time, confirming its contents.

When he was done, the only thing he could do was smile.

Rin would be very interested in this.

_I really hope that you truly have your intentions straight, Akira Kurusu._

_...But for now, I will play into your game._

Shirou Emiya resumed walking to class.

...

**Note**

Welp, short chapter is short. On the other hand, things are finally starting to move forwards! And don't worry, Akira isn't recruiting Shirou into the phantom thieves, _yet_.


End file.
